The death of skinny jeans has been but a whisper for some time now, foretold perhaps by Rihanna in 2016 sporting an absolutely enormous pair of jeans, a high-fashion interaction of the Jncos I wore during the late ’90s. The rise of “mom jeans” and high-waisted pants alike have given over to straight-legged, loose fit jeans that are apparently very popular with the youth. Beholden as I am to Instagram’s algorithm, as well as the relentless marketing emails I receive daily, I have fallen prey to this trend, and am not ashamed. Blessedly, I’ve discovered that non-skinny jeans, for me, are actually flattering, functional, comfortable.
According to the New York Times, the move away from skinny jeans to a more accommodating pant leg is corroborated by sales data from retailers like Levi’s and Madewell; though people are still buying skinny jeans, there is a shift towards other styles that let the gams breathe. TikTok is full of fashionable youngsters showing off thrift hauls, which include what I affectionately refer to as “comedian jeans”—baggy, loose-fitting men’s Levi’s that go well with square-toed loafers, Nike Air Monarchs, and a mediocre set at a comedy club. These jeans are now widely available on the racks at the vintage stores in my neighborhood, selling for more money than I want to pay, but have also trickled down to mass retailers. Everlane offers a wide range of skinny jeans in various rises, as well as a more straight-legged, relaxed, vintage-adjacent iteration, called the ’90s Jean that is meant to be reminiscent of the jeans worn by the decade’s supermodels—nipped in at the waist, a leg that allows for some room, and carefully placed pockets that ride high and wide on the ass. Recently, they caved in full to the trend, and dropped the Way-High Jean, a jean with a rise so high that it promises to erase any trace of your belly button.
I’ve resisted the siren call of these new pants, whatever they may be, not because I thought they would look bad or because I am afraid of change, but because it took mass-market retailers a minute to catch up. The Levi’s Wedgie jean, cut very much like the platonic ideal of the vintage jeans worn by taut youngsters and Hailey Bieber, only goes up to a size 32. Regardless of how many times I measured my body, it was clear that the 32 would not fit. But my quest for the ass-lifting properties of the Wedgie led me to a plus-sized iteration that I found on Amazon that was somehow too big and also wildly unflattering. The crucial difference is that the plus-sized Wedgie Jeans have a skinny leg and the straight-size ones do not. (Had I been better at reading, I would’ve recognized this and not wasted my money.) More fuel for my personal theory, which is that the trendy jeans are not meant for anyone over a size 16 because of some long-held belief that skinny jeans are slimming and any excess fabric around the lower half of the body, a sartorial death sentence for anyone over a size 14. This, of course, is not true. Anybody can wear whatever they want, but it’s much easier to do so when the things you want are available for you in your size.
