I bought lots of DG2 jeans several years ago, and loved them at first. But then after a couple of years buying them, the quality and sizing went downhill (at least in my opinion judging from the ones I started getting) and I've only bought one pair in about two years. It was a pair of her regular bootcut jeans in a very light green color (for summer) on clearance for $19.95, and I had a $20.00 coupon HSN had given me for another problem I had, so I got them FREE!
I carry my weight in my waist, so these were great for me to begin with, but over time I decided they weren't all they were cracked up to be. I have a $25.00 pair of bootcut jeans I bought from Sears 15 years ago that are still my "go to" jeans! Even the DG2's that aren't "Super Stretch" stretch out so much while wearing them that I have to take them up in the waist to keep from having to constantly pull them up, or wear a belt, which I hate. I don't even like belt loops on jeans. I've even been able to take some off without even unzipping or unbuttoning them because they stretched out so much!
And that "gaping" in the front... one of the reasons I stopped buying is that almost every pair I got appeared to have too much fabric on either side of the bottom 1-2"of the zipper and just below where the zipper ends, which may be what you're talking about.
Her jeans also wrinkle way too much!