Look away now if you love your baggy jeans. Take a deep breath if, after a few years of being sure skinny jeans are officially over, you did a big cleanup at the end of March. Because it’s starting to look like skinny jeans are making a comeback.
Oh yeah. The tight leg and ankle fit that was the standard style in the 2000s appeared on the autumn/winter 2024 runways, and not in just any runway show, but at Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Prada’s little sister, Miu Miu.
Then, right on cue, the style of jeans that was consigned to Siberia fashion about six years ago in favor of wide-leg styles got the kind of endorsement money can’t buy: a paparazzi photo. by Kate Moss, shopping on a street. sunny spring weekend, wearing skinny jeans with a vintage Vivienne Westwood top and Pretty Ballerina flats.
Well well. Some would say it was the starting signal and the moment when the countdown to the return of skinny jeans really began.
Kate Moss can’t dress without changing the fashion barometer. She’s usually at least six months ahead and her fashion antennae are impeccable; In short, no one can attribute this to a meaningless fact.
Kate Moss was photographed shopping on a sunny spring weekend in the Cotswolds last month, wearing skinny jeans with a vintage Vivienne Westwood top and Pretty Ballerina flats.
A model wears Miu Miu skinnies on the autumn/winter 24 catwalk
Meghan Markle wears Frame’s Le High Skinny to a casual sushi dinner with a friend last month
In the early 2000s, skinny jeans and black ballet flats were one of Kate’s signature looks, and 20 years later, she’s feeling skinny and ballet flats again.
None of this is absolute proof that the loose styles that have gradually replaced skinny styles are for the cut. It’s not an absolute guarantee that by October we’ll all be back to kneecap-defining denim.
But we must add the fact that top models Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski, and Hollywood stars Mila Kunis and Jessica Chastain have been seen lately in tight, stretchy jeans, and that public interest is already moving in that direction. direction (searches for the term ‘skinny jeans’ on the John Lewis website have increased 281 per cent since the beginning of March), and the skinny’s return seems more than a remote possibility.
How you feel about this news will depend on whether you’re a true convert to looser fits or still harboring feelings for the jeans we’ve all been wearing for over a decade.
Those of us who have just gotten used to baggy jeans (boyfriend jeans, carrot jeans, bell bottoms, palazzos, cargo, barrel legs… anything but skinny skinny pants) will be horrified.
But a large number of women over 50 will be very happy because, to them, nothing feels or looks as good as skinny jeans (to paraphrase Kate), and when fashion declared that they were no longer at the top of the pop, they felt like they were losing a best friend though.
Model Gigi Hadid steps out in a pair of dark blue skinny jeans in New York
Kate Moss’ daughter Lila takes a page from her mother’s book while wearing skinny black jeans at an event in New York.
Supermodel Gisele Bundchen pairs her light blue skinny jeans with a white tank top
You may remember the recent backlash when women in Middle England rejected the news that their floral dresses had now expired and needed to be taken immediately to the charity shop.
Well, the skinny jean woman’s relationship with her stretch jean savior is similar, but it runs much deeper and has been simmering ever since boyfriend jeans kicked off the baggier jean scene.
Nothing in recent fashion history has divided women as much as the debate over skinny versus baggy jeans.
On one hand, there are fans of wider legs who believe that skinnies have become boring and that a looser fit is more flattering, especially if you’re not in your prime and don’t want to wear anything tight anymore.
Wide-leg jeans are based on narrow hips, but skinny jeans really only suit the long, straight-legged models and actresses who are wearing them again now. Don’t force us to wear something that fits tight above the knees and a few inches above the knees. Don’t make our legs look like sausages when they could look like elegant flutes. That’s the bag argument.
Then there are the committed skinny pants wearers who loved, loved the comfort and practicality of stretch denim. Anyway, who wants the hassle of having to drag flares across wet pavement?
Star Reece Witherspoon pairs her jeans with leopard-print heels
Sarah Jessica Parker wears washed blue skinny jeans in New York last June
The Princess of Wales tends to wear tight pants because it remains a favorite of many women, whatever their interest in fashion.
And if we’re being brutally honest, who doesn’t look bigger in big pants? You have to be tall to look wider or you will look boxy. You have to wear heels or you’ll look dumpy. And what are you supposed to wear on top? Because if you think I’m tucking my shirt in, you’re in for something else! This is pretty much what skinny fans think.
To put it another way, most middle-aged women probably like their legs more than the rest of their body, and the moment they tuck them away under swaggering, modern A-line denim, they feel inches wider everywhere.
Skinny jeans fit under anything from a long jacket or thigh-length blouse to a hip-skimming sweater or a simple T-shirt, while looser trouser cuts look best with tucked-in, tailored, or fitted tops.
If you’re in your twenties, you wear them with a crop top and a strip of ripped abdominal muscles on display, to emphasize your small torso and waist above your voluminous lower half.
That’s the argument from skinny wearers: it may seem like loose pants will be easier to wear and more flattering, but it really isn’t.
The fact is that there is still a huge and loyal skinny fan base, many of whom have never bothered to switch to baggies, and not all of them are moms with a belly; I present to you the queen of skinny jeans, the Princess of Wales.
Kate is a very good example of what you might call slim picking. He wears baggy pant suits, the occasional pair of boot-cut boots, and tailored bell-bottoms, but almost always, when he wears denim, and without fail when he’s off duty, he sticks with skinny jeans because he’s still the one. favorite of many. of women, whatever their interest in fashion.
“Skinny jeans are still an important part of our business and a staple for many customers,” admits Selfridges jeans buyer Grace Neal.
And, if you needed further proof that this trend is back at the forefront of denim sales, Meghan Markle’s favorite style, Frame’s Le High Skinny, is currently sold out.
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