Skinny jeans have never been more uncool – or more popular. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that slim-stretch styles overwhelmingly make up the most sales in men’s denim – over 70% – even as the skinny look remains a fashion disaster.
In the early 2000s, skinny jeans were everywhere, paired with other trends of the era like ballet flats, peplum tops, and Louboutin heels. They were sold by designer brands and fast fashion stores. But by the end of the decade they were falling out of favor. Now, it’s not just the runways that are full of roomy, tailored trousers (Dior, Saint Laurent, Prada, and the Row all sent models down their latest runways in panoramic trousers that could have doubled as street-sweepers): even Gen Z fashionistas of TikTok have taken to proudly throwing theirs away in favor of roomier denim.
Attempts to revive the look have fallen flat. The revival of “indie sleaze”, which has seen renewed interest in wired headphones and the American Apparel vibe, has not stretched to putting on a pair of ripped, circulation-cutting pants. When the New York Times called Céline’s fall 2023 runway “the return of skinny jeans”, the look failed to materialize beyond a few awkward celebrities: Meghan was recently photographed in a pair and Jeff Bezos wore distressed faded stretch denim to Coachella.
In 2006, the journalist and author James Sullivan wrote Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon. “If there’s one thing I learned from reporting that book, it’s that styles of jeans will always go out of style, and then come back in,” he said. “If young men are saying ‘we’re not wearing skinny jeans’ today, just wait five minutes and they will come back.”
Here is a potted history of the squeeze of fortune for skinny pants.
4th century: Long before the Strokes or the Ramones, the Angles, a tribe that lived in what’s now northern Germany, bring their votive offerings into the Thorsberg Bog. Their clothing includes some…
Read the full article here
