As someone who wears jeans almost every single day (save for the sweltering summer months here in the South where I live) and considers it part of my job to write about the latest denim trends on a very regular basis, it’s understandable that I own more pairs of jeans than is practical for one person to own. But it’s basically research, right? That said, despite the stacks and stacks of jeans lining my closet shelves, I tend to reach for the same handful of pairs over and over again.

Depending on the current denim trends and the season, my assortment of go-to jeans fluctuates, but several styles in the list of seven I’m about to take you through have been in my rotation for years, proving their timelessness. I should also mention that I’m very picky when it comes to jeans (and every other basic, as we all should be), so my most-worn pairs undoubtedly check a lot of boxes. The last thing I’ll mention is that none of these jeans are of the baggy or skinny variety, and are instead some version of a straight-leg style.