The vilified linchpin of millennial and Y2K fashion – the skinny jean – might be on its way to a comeback.
Over the last few months, a range of skinny styles, including pants and jeans, have cropped up on fashion runways, influencer videos and Google search trends, indicating the divisive garment could soon be a closet staple again.
Part of the buzz around skinny jeans undoubtedly came when TikTok star and Gen Z influencer Alix Earle debuted a pair of exclusive skinnies with denim brand Frame at the end of January, but the hype was already building before that.
“For like the last six months, we started to hear rumblings of skinny jeans making a comeback,” said Janine Stichter, a retail analyst and managing director at BTIG. “If you look at Google Trends data for skinny jeans … it actually [spiked] the week of January 12 and it’s been picking up steam ever since.”
The week after Earle debuted her skinny jean partnership with Frame, searches for skinny jeans were up 50% year over year, she added, but still well off their 2009 peak.
That likely led to a spike in interest across retailers. Reformation told CNBC this week its customers have been searching for skinny jeans on its website more frequently lately.
American Eagle has also seen interest grow.
“Certainly, there’s a lot of activity on skinny. I would like to say there’s a styling thing that’s happening, the high boot situation, and high boots and skinny jeans work, so that’s definitely taking hold,” Jen Foyle, American Eagle’s president and executive creative officer, told CNBC in an interview.
“You’re starting to see some of that movement but right now, it’s still relatively small, but we’re prepared to roll with it as we test it and scale,” she continued. “Our job is to be nimble, right?”
But like any fashion trend, the skinny jean resurgence was first spotted on the runways. Based on how the major designers are interpreting the look, it’ll appear different this time around.
“On the runways, Prada, Isabel Morant, Tod’s, they all did very slim silhouette pants. They’re calling them skinny pants. The difference is that they’re doing them in plaid, not just solids. They’re doing them in these very tailored fabrics,” said Shawn Grain Carter, a fashion professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “We’re seeing some of the celebrities wear these skinny jeans, but they’re not nearly as conforming … it’s different from the jeggings that you saw [between 2009 and 2011]… It conforms to the leg, but it doesn’t have to necessarily hug it so tightly that all you see is an outline of a woman’s leg.”
The unofficial queen of denim – Levi Strauss CEO Michelle Gass – spotted the same trend on the runways and told CNBC she expects the controversial jeans to officially come back “sometime in the future.”
“While we don’t have a crystal ball, don’t get rid of your skinny jeans,” said Gass. “I do think when we see a bigger trend re-emerge, it’s going to look and feel different.”
Grain Carter said skinny styles could start appearing in stores more widely by this summer, but Stitchter said they could start returning to shelves closer to the fall when more consumers are out shopping for pants and jeans. That’ll be welcome news for apparel and footwear retailers because whenever trends shift, it tends to trigger a surge in demand for new clothes, she said.
“If we are to get a full fledged restocking in any of these styles, it tends to be a big positive for the sector,” said Stichter. “Anytime you have a big silhouette shift, it’s positive for restocking cycles. It’s also positive for footwear because you need different footwear to go with the bottoms, and then you don’t just buy the bottoms, you tend to need different tops to go with the bottom so it can kind of catalyze a whole closet refresh … That’s kind of what we’re looking out for.”
For those who’ve only just stocked up their closet on baggy and loose fits, the current jean du jour, rest assured that there’s room for both. If there’s one thing that’s started to define fashion, it’s the lack of consensus among consumers of all age groups and styles, said Stichter.
Many shoppers never stopped wearing skinny jeans, and with the breakneck pace that trends move in the age of social media, fashion cycles can be resurrected before they’re even dead.
“The denim closet really should have all varieties of denim. It really is about what you’re wearing, what your mood is, and people still wear skinny today,” said Gass. “So keep your loose, keep your baggie. Everything right now goes.”