I first heard of the Wilfred Effortless Pant at Aritzia from my very stylish friend, Kylie. She had her eye on them, and since I rarely have an original thought these days, my eye was suddenly on them, as well. They have 4.5 stars on Aritzia's site, with over 400 reviews. The $148 pant comes in 19 colors — from Black to Suave Green to Orchid Petal — and there's even a linen version, a cropped version, and a shorts version.

The thought of wearing these meant I had to prepare for a relaunch of myself. I was going from boring old normal jeans girl to a Pant Girl. The possible reinvention excited me. The Effortless Pant could be the catalyst of my new fashion identity for spring/summer 2022 — the possibilities were endless, and, according to the name, effortless.

Six months after Kylie had originally alerted me to these pants, I decided to finally buy them in mid-March, but the joke was on me — the pants wouldn't be available to ship until (an estimated) early April.

And for someone who would push her own grandmother into an early grave for overnight shipping, waiting four-ish weeks for a pair of pants to be delivered seemed like... an effort. But I did it anyway.

When they finally arrived, they didn't fit. Four weeks later, and the pants didn't fit. Despite putting in the effort to read through 300 of the 400+ reviews for hours, all of which said they ran "true to size," if not a little smaller than TTS, the pants were too big. A real kick in the shins, considering I'd done more research on the sizing of the pant than I did all of college.

Little did I know, the effort to get the Effortless Pant was just beginning.

I started the return process, and ... good luck finding a printer in 2022. That's an effort in and of itself. When you do find a printer, and repackage your pant, you've got to drop them off at the carrier and say a hail Mary that they'll get to their final destination safely. All for a full (minus an $8 return shipping fee) refund.

A couple of weeks later, just when I thought the Effortless Pant was in my past, I pass the Aritzia store, and I think... what if they had the Effortless Pant in store?

Turns out, they do. But not in Black, which is the only color I wear. And it would be an effort to figure out how to work Heatwave Blue into my wardrobe, right? Yes, but that is the only color they have in my (best guess) size. So it's either Heatwave Blue or waiting another four weeks for the color I'll actually wear. So I buy them.

When I try them on at home, in normal lighting, I realize my instinct was right and I've made a huge mistake.

So I order the Black online, again, and start waiting another four weeks for them to be delivered. During the wait, because I'm impatient and don't have any living grandparents to wager for quicker shipping, I order the wide leg pants from Abercrombie (too wide), the full length pants from Zara (too full length), and the way-high drape pant from Everlane (wayyyyy too high).

After all my effort, the Effortless pant arrived yesterday, and all of the effort was worth it. Not because the pants are so great – they're fine, but that's not the point – but because we need a little hard-earned victory now and again. Is it ridiculous to think of this as such? Of course. But there are only so many moments in life when you know what you want. Most of the time, we talk ourselves out of it. Especially when things get in our way.

My spring in slacks has started. When a reinvention that feels good lurks, it's worth pursuing. You'll know it when you (or Kylie) sees it.