JEAN GENIUS

NEW YORK - The e-mail from Maria in London began with a simple "hi" and a question: Where could she get another pair of Siwy jeans?

The tone of Maria's message gradually grew more urgent, eventually bordering on fanatical.

"I found that the cut of these around my butt was just the most amazing thing I have ever seen and I think they have saved my relationship!" she wrote. "I need to find these exact jeans in different washes. I would like a different pair for each day of the week!"

It's a common reaction to Siwy Denim, a new line of jeans designed by Central Falls native Michelle Siwy.

Since Siwy launched her line a year ago, its trademark quilted heart patch has graced more than a few famous rear ends: Britney Spears, Nicole Richie, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Selma Blair, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Jessica Simpson and the OC's Rachel Bilson. It's been featured in the editorial content (either news stories or fashion spreads) in Elle -- both the U.K. and U.S. versions -- Lucky, Marie Claire, Star, Women's Wear Daily and Nylon, as well as several smaller fashion-industry publications.

After designing for several clothing companies, Siwy, 29, decided to pursue her own line because in spite of the bewildering number of choices in designer denim, she wasn't able to find the perfect pair. It was either a beautiful wash and a bad fit, or a good fit in a boring color.

"Even in a market that was so saturated with denim lines," she says, "there was still a gap."

BY ALL ACCOUNTS, Siwy has created a product that supremely flatters the female figure. Her boot cut, for instance, draws in at the bottom instead of flaring out further, creating a silhouette that balances a woman's hips. Her jeans lift butts and lengthen legs, but also feature user-friendly details such as a hem that's shorter in back so it doesn't drag on the ground -- refreshing in a world of jeans cut so long they drag even with four-inch heels.

Siwy's denim shorts extend deliberately "down to where the cellulite ends for most people," and are cut higher in back to create a more flattering profile: "When you're viewing it from the side, the eye lifts," she explains.

The jeans are dangerously form-fitting: A tongue-in-cheek instruction sheet for putting them on includes such motions as squatting and wiggling.

They're "designed to give curves to girls who don't have them and flatter those who do," as described in YM magazine's back-to-school 2005 issue. Says Siwy: "Everything works with a woman's body, which is curvy even on a thinner woman."

SIWY, THE SECOND of four sisters, began drawing at age 7, when she found herself with idle time after she was hit by a car and seriously hurt. In high school, she remembers browsing through the racks of cast-off denim at the Salvation Army store, trying to figure out why certain colors appealed to her and what cuts worked with different fabrics.

After graduating from Central Falls High School, she put aside her fashion dreams to study nursing at the University of Rhode Island. It didn't take. She finished her bachelor's degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Siwy named her first styles after her sisters. Tina, the oldest, is a library assistant at the Providence Journal. Kathy is an accountant; Kim, a chef at a Vietnamese restaurant in Cranston. Their parents still live in Central Falls.

Perhaps Siwy was destined for denim: The family name, pronounced SEE-wee, is of Polish origin and denotes a bluish-gray color.

Besides jeans and shorts, Siwy designs skirts, capris and clam diggers. She's adding T-shirts for spring, and would consider adding jackets and vests, but denim, she says, will always be the centerpiece.

Siwy employs three sales reps and a publicist, but logs long days herself. She's up early to take calls from London, and works till the day ends in Los Angeles.

She designs at the Lower East Side home where she lives with her videographer husband, Ed Burke, or at her SoHo studio. But rather than show at Fashion Week in Bryant Park, she promotes her creations at trade shows and a showroom in the Meatpacking District.

She works out her designs in Adobe Illustrator, but doesn't get into making patterns or samples herself. She approves the designs, and chooses just the right wash for each style.

A soft, light blue that looks lived-in is the most common shade for the styles spotted on stars. The skinny-calf style also comes in an edgier blue with a black overlay and distressing at the hip creases. Siwy tries multiple combinations of wash, fabric and cut before settling on the product she'll produce for sale.

Siwy jeans are made entirely in the United States -- not just the fabric, but thread, rivets and buttons as well. Siwy views the jeans not as clothing, but as wearable art and collector's items. Each pair is unique: Inside is a piece of feedsack from rural America, ca. 1890 to 1940. The labels, which Siwy buys from a woman who collects them in Maryland, aren't the tan burlap one might envision. Colorful patterns -- navy, yellow and coral flowers on a white background, for instance -- adorn them.

THE JEANS SELL for less than $200, making them expensive for the average woman, but a veritable bargain for someone used to designer denim prices. Siwy says she designs for women in a wide age range -- 13 to 50 -- and "someone with attitude, confidence, a little bit of edge."

For design inspiration, she looks to Chloe, Stella McCartney and Barbara Bui.

And yes, she wears her own jeans: "I can't wear anything else."

On this particular day, she's wearing a skinny-calf style, tucked inside tan knee-high boots, with a matching tan woven leather belt around a purple H&M top with cape sleeves and three cascading tiers of fabric.

The skinny-calf trend, as opposed to the high-waist trend, really caught on this fall, Siwy says. "All of a sudden, people in Nebraska want skinny jeans."

Siwy Denim is available at plenty of boutiques in New York and Los Angeles, as well as Japan and England, but not at any store in Rhode Island yet. The Nordstrom and Jasmine Sola chains have placed orders for some stores, so their stores at the Providence Place mall may eventually carry the line, Siwy says.

In a pinch, though -- for instance, if a relationship needs saving -- Rhode Islanders can find Siwy Denim on Web sites including www.shopintuition.com, www.activeendeavors.com, www.revolveclothing.com, and www.thefashionpulse.com.