They are the fashion trend that has refused to die, but there are signs that 20 years after Kate Moss and a selection of indie rockers first sported skinny jeans, they may finally be losing their allure.
A new global fashion report, based on an analysis of more than 60m jean-related internet searches, shows that skintight denim is finally losing its grip on the jeans market as shoppers embrace the looser-fitting styles, such as the 90s-style “mom jeans” favoured by the fashion pack for some time.
The study by London-based fashion search website Lyst says straight-legged jeans are now the most sought-after cut, with mom jeans – loose-fitting with a high waist and tapered leg – now a bona fide “global trend.” More than 200,000 shoppers a month scour the web for the perfect pair of moms.
The changes chime with the autumn/winter catwalk shows. According to trend forecaster WGSN, the number of straight-leg jeans in the collections was up by a fifth at the expense of skinnier alternatives. A third of all the jeans paraded down the runway were straight leg while only around 10% were skinnies, it said.
The Lyst report was based on the page views and sales figures from 12,000 stores around the world, and the data shows a gradual widening of trouser legs over the past decade as shoppers rediscovered flares and bought into relaxed “boyfriend” and cropped looks.
The biggest denim trends right now include ripped and baggy jeans, for which searches have doubled in the last month. The number of shoppers mulling a boilersuit was up 120%, Lyst said, with searches for denim two-pieces, known as “co-ords”, up 250%.
John Lewis said sales of straight-leg jeans in its own range were up 60% on last year, while demand for boyfriend jeans had surged by more than 40%. A spokeswoman said: “In spring/summer 2018, [SS18] skinny jeans accounted for 50% of our denim sales, but in SS19 they accounted for 38% – showing customers are definitely trying out new styles and moving away from the classic skinny jean look.”
Social media is full of influencers and celebrities wearing this season’s most adventurous styles, from the challenging designer “assymetricals” recently modelled by singer Céline Dion – with one voluminous wide leg and one skinny – to the jeans with a side slanting fly worn by actor Ruth Wilson at Wimbledon last week.
Then there are extreme denim styles such as Y-Project’s now infamous denim high-cut knickers (the Janties), which also went viral.
But Glen Tooke, an analyst at market research firm Kantar, says it takes the general public a long time to embrace such out-there trends: “It’s about people becoming brave enough to wear them.”
Kate Moss helped birth the skinny jeans phenomenon, being regularly snapped in a pair of faded grey skinnies in the early noughties. By 2005, Topshop, which was then at the height of its powers, was shifting nearly 20,000 pairs a week of its tight-fitting Baxter jeans.
Jeans are big business for UK retailers: shoppers will buy around 87m pairs this year, shelling out close to £1.6bn. And while Gucci commands nearly £1,000 for a pair of printed denim skinnies, the average price paid is just £18.
Having the right styles, in the right size, is a cutthroat business. This week Marks & Spencer’s clothing boss Jill McDonald lost her job in part for presiding over what has been dubbed “Jeansgate”. M&S sells more jeans than any other UK retailer, shifting 570 pairs an hour every day of the year – around 5m pairs in total. But McDonald failed to buy enough stock for a collection promoted by TV presenter Holly Willoughby, so it sold out – resulting in empty rails in store for almost a month.
Lorna Hall, WGSN’s retail director, said the sheer success of skinny jeans meant they had moved beyond being a trend: “Something as big as the skinny jeans is not a trend, it’s a wardrobe staple. It will still exist in our wardrobes, but there are now a lot of people buying into other styles.”
The Lyst report also confirms that white jeans – famously the uniform of Liz Hurley in the 90s – are back. Sales of white denims almost surpassed those of blue jeans for the first time in the last week of May, with searches up 42% since the beginning of March.
But a closer look at the actual shopping behaviour of Britons shows a reluctance to jettison the skinnies just yet.
One in two pairs of jeans bought in the UK is still a skinny fit, according to Kantar analysis of the most popular jeans styles bought this spring, with just one in three slim or straight-legged. M&S says its £19.50 Ivy skinnies and £15 super-skinny jeggings are still bestsellers.
And it is not just a women thing: the ripped young men in this year’s Love Island TV show – like Anton Danyluk and Michael Griffiths – have been sporting super-tight ankle-length skinnies, despite the midsummer Mediterranean heat.
Tooke reckons it is tough to forecast whether the new looks will ever be as big as skinnies: “The jeans in the fashion pages make up just a third of all jeans bought – the rest are either regular or skinny,” he says. “There are lots of micro-trends that never make it to the mainstream. It’s hard to predict whether in two months no one will be talking about asymmetric jeans – or in two years if we will all be wearing them.”
