I found the perfect pair of pants once: they were silky, black, and bootcut, with a mid-rise waist and a neat hook-and-eye closure. I spent way too much money on them because they were perfect, and perfect pants can feel impossible to find…and when you do find them it seems like you should probably buy them (preferably in triplicate) just in case you never come across another pair that fits you that well ever again.

That was about a decade ago. I wore those pants for years and years until the hems frayed and the seams fell apart and they ended up in the donation box, headed straight for Goodwill.

Finding a great pair of pants shouldn’t be especially difficult. But apparently it’s not just me who has trouble with this particular undertaking: pants, it turns out, are a tough buy for pretty much everyone. LOFT did a study with 10,000 real women in which the participants tried on hundreds of pairs of pants and explained exactly what they liked and didn’t like, and found that for most women buying a pair of pants is even more challenging than buying a swimsuit. In response, they set out to completely reimagine how women approach the experience of shopping for pants….and it worked.

What LOFT came up with: a Fall 2013 collection that includes 45 different pants options and a “fit tree” that helps women find the perfect pair for them.