Make Me Happy Mix Tape: Leather pants and music and musical pants

Dear Kristin,

I may buy these.  Thoughts?  They'll cost me around $50, down from $250 at the Outnet, but they won't crack in the crotch (one hopes they're better made than my my forever21 version) and they won't cost as much as the leather version I really want.  Because I almost need leather pants.  But I can't imagine getting a decent pair for less than one hundred, two hundred dollars.

Really, the more I think about it, the more I want to dress/punch like Buffy this fall:

All leather, all the time.  I'm not saying I need a leather suit, but I'm not saying I don't, either.  Case in point: as I was readying myself for the today's sunny breeziness, I actually thought "you know what would be perfect with these boyfriend jeans and this cool, refreshing air?  A leather t-shirt."  I just want a version of the look that doesn't come directly out of 1999's figurative closet.  Here's what I mean, modern spring leather:

(All Spring 2011 RTW.  Rebecca Taylor bookends, then Cushnie et Ochs, two Ohne Titel and an Elise Overland)

Boyfriend jeans, the month's most recent attempts:

Left: jeans are men's Gap with Peirre Hardy for Gap platform.

Right: my actual boyfriend's (Levi's) with a vintage scarf and wedges from Cynthia Vincent for Target

I'm trying to get used to showing a little midriff.  There was a nary a Spring 2011 collection without an exposed stomach or two (whether through transparency or simple nakedness of the area).  Which I rather like.  Moving on to a more covered-up me.  Flares:

Skinny jeans just seem so staple-ish, so obvious and constant.  What I like about all of the above is that the pants are really carrying the outfit.  Flares are often a bit too preppy for my taste, though; hence the giant safety pin

and wrap around belt and platforms.  Skinnies wouldn't have been interesting or flattering enough, and the boyfriends would have been downright frumpy.  And hot damn, I love that belt.  Also lovable?  (Pardon my leap.) Someone else's home videos set to your music:

The Suckers.  They are lovable, especially live.  (I saw them quite accidentally at The National's Terminal 5 performance).  Perhaps a little too close to Sunset Rubdown for (complete) comfort, but whatever.  Sunset Rubdown is the tops.  That's sort of how I feel about this Head and the Heart video:

Does he sounds laughably like Ryan Adams?  Yes.  Is it a friendly laughability?  Absolutely.  Does it make me a wee uncomfortable?  Sure.  But you know what it MOSTLY makes me?  Glad to have a new, goodish Ryan Adams in my life.  Also, they're not copycats.  They usually sound a great deal more like this:

So phew. But that means I still need Ryan to get good again.

Love,
J. Benny