Abercrombie & Fitch Curve Love vs. Regular: What's the difference?

Abercrombie & Fitch's Curve Love fit adds 2 inches through the hip and thigh at the same waist size as the regular fit, which makes it the one to buy if your jeans clear your hips but gape at the back of the waistband. The regular fit runs a straighter line from waist to hip and suits shoppers whose waist and hip measurements sit closer together.

Both fits are on sale at abercrombie.com as of July 2026, across the same denim styles. Choosing between them is a question of proportion rather than size, and Abercrombie's own size run makes that plain.

What Is the Difference Between Curve Love and Regular Fit?

Curve Love is Abercrombie's denim fit with extra room cut into the hip and thigh while the waistband measurement stays put. The brand's Curve Love product pages put a number on it, describing the fit as adding an additional 2 inches through the hip and thigh for a proportional waist-to-hip ratio that eliminates waist gap. A size 27 in Curve Love and a size 27 in the regular cut share a waistband. The Curve Love version hands you 2 more inches below it.

One naming point trips people up. Abercrombie labels the non-Curve-Love version Classic Fit on its site now, described as the jeans you know and love with a straighter line from waist to hip. Shoppers still search for it as "regular", and it is the same cut under a newer label.

Abercrombie runs both fits across its denim range, so the wash, rise and leg shape you want is available either way. That 2 inches is the whole of the difference.

Why Do Regular Jeans Gape at the Waist?

A waistband gapes when the jean's waist-to-hip ratio is narrower than yours. Denim patterns are drafted to one assumed ratio. If the distance between your waist and hip measurements is wider than the pattern assumes, the only size that clears your hips and seat arrives with a waistband built for a bigger waist, and the surplus fabric shows up as a gap at the back.

The workarounds all cost you something. A belt gathers the extra fabric into folds that show under a fitted top. Taking the waistband in at a tailor costs money and has to be repeated on every pair you own. Sizing down leaves the seat and thigh straining.

Curve Love changes the pattern instead of the size. You buy your waist measurement, the cut supplies the hip and thigh room, and the waistband sits flush with no alteration.

How Should You Size Curve Love Jeans?

Order your true waist size in Curve Love. The extra 2 inches sits in the hip and thigh, so sizing down to compensate pulls the waistband tight and undoes the point of the fit. Abercrombie's Curve Love denim runs from waist 23 to 38, with lengths listed as Extra Short, Short, Regular, Long and Extra Long.

Curve Love is a proportion fit and not a plus-size line, which is the second thing shoppers get wrong. A size 24 sits in the same range as a size 38, and the extra room scales with the size you take.

If you are between sizes, measure your natural waist with a tape rather than going by the number on your last pair. Denim sizing drifts between brands and between years, and Curve Love only does its job when the waist number is right. Our guide to Old Navy Tall versus Long covers the same measure-first logic for length.

Which Body Shapes Does Each Fit Suit?

Curve Love suits anyone whose hip measurement is a good deal larger than their waist measurement. That takes in hourglass and pear proportions, plus plenty of people who would not use either word about themselves. The test is mechanical. Put on jeans that fit your hips and seat comfortably, then see whether you can slide a flat hand into the back of the waistband. If you can, Curve Love is your fit.

The regular fit suits a smaller gap between those two measurements, including straighter and more athletic proportions. If standard jeans sit flush at the back in the size that clears your thighs, the extra 2 inches gives you slack you have no use for, and the seat reads baggy rather than clean.

Neither fit says anything about your size. Abercrombie sells both across the same size run, and the decision rests on the distance between two numbers on your own tape measure.

Which Cuts Does Curve Love Come In?

Curve Love covers Abercrombie's main denim silhouettes rather than a token handful. The site lists it across 90s Straight, 90s Relaxed, Wide Leg, Ultra Loose, Barrel, Bootcut and Flare, and Straight and Skinny, at rises from low through ultra high. If you are picking a leg shape as well as a fit, our breakdown of the 90s Straight against the Ankle Straight covers how those two wear day to day.

The fit has spread past denim as well. Abercrombie's Curve Love bottoms section now takes in trousers, shorts, skirts, sweatpants and active bottoms, which is worth knowing if the waist gap follows you out of jeans and into everything else.

How to Choose Between Curve Love and the Regular Fit

Buy Curve Love if you have spent years choosing jeans for your hips and belting the waist to make them wearable. Buy the regular fit if your waistband already sits flush and your only complaint is length. Abercrombie stocks both fits across the same styles, so the choice costs you a tape measure and nothing else.

Curve Love has a limit worth naming. It addresses the waist-to-hip ratio and leaves rise and inseam alone. If your jeans also sit short in the leg or slide down at the back when you sit, the length options and the rise you pick will do more for that than the fit label will.

If the brand is as open a question as the fit, our guides to brands like Abercrombie and Good American for inclusive denim cover labels that cut for a wider spread of waist-to-hip ratios, and the rest of our denim coverage is worth a read before you commit to a size.

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