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As I hit adolescence when replicating Kate Moss and Sienna Miller in their super-skinny Sass & Bide ‘Misfits’ (remember those?) became my ultimate goal, I would tease her about how ‘dated’ her pale Levi’s jeans were. ‘They’ll come back around one day,’ she’d say, like all mums do.
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After years of riding high, this style is now the bedridden former rock star of denim, clinging on for dear life as it watches its younger, peppier counterparts steal the limelight. Sure, Kate Moss is still wearing them occasionally, but she’s Kate Moss and I, sadly, am not.
What used to be my fail-safe outfit, the staple that formed the basis of every single look I wore, now makes me feel lumpy and overexposed. No matter what I pair them with, the proportions somehow feel all wrong.
I’m not the only one who feels this way, either. ‘As I get older, it’s not about showing off skinny legs, or figure-hugging clothing – feeling comfortable in my clothes and in myself is more important,’ says fashion editor and The Frugality blogger Alexandra Stedman.
‘Plus, the denim styles at the moment are moving away from slick silhouettes to more relaxed and voluminous – and I love that.’
Parisian writer, creative consultant and ELLE UK Contributing Editor Camille Charrière agrees. ‘It was very hard to get out of skinnies, especially being French, but now I find it hard to get back into them. I think it comes with being a certain age – you look more rock’n’roll in skinny jeans, but more elegant in boyfriend jeans,’ she says, adding that she finds the best jeans courtesy of Levi’s, Monki and H&M.
But where did it all go wrong for skinny jeans? ‘Jeggings ruined them,’ says Donna Wallace, ELLE‘s former Accessories Editor, who favours a pair of Lee straight-leg men’s jeans that she’s cut off at the hems. ‘As soon as they started bastardising the denim and putting in too much stretch, it became trashy.’
Not to mention, that the elastane you find in your typical pair of skinny jeans or jeggings is unrecyclable and deeply bad for the planet.
Our perception of what looks cool has shifted, and though I’m a little miffed to realise that the skinny jean isn’t, as I had previously thought, my denim life partner, it’s a sign of a greater shift in fashion, and that is always exciting.
VALENTINA VALDINOCIIMAXTREE
Brands such as Vêtements, the Parisian underground collective turned game-changing fashion powerhouse, and London-based Marques’Almeida, heralded the return of true denim back in 2014. And they reminded us of a pre-skinny golden age when it was thick, stretch-free and more of a statement than just an off-duty staple. Think Farrah Fawcett on that skateboard, Thelma and Louise mid-road trip, Jane Birkin in her spliced and re-stitched flares.
The way we shop has changed since then, too. ‘It used to be that a customer might find one style or fit they preferred and stick to that,’ says Topshop’s former Buying Director Emma Fox, ‘but now they are building up their jeans wardrobe with different shapes, cuts, washes and finishes according to what they want to wear that day.’
Proof? From high street to high end, brands are expanding their jeans offering (for example Victoria Beckham and Mia Regan’s recent capsule collab, or Nensi Dojaka introducing denim at her SS23 show) because we’re simply buying more and more, and they are no longer skinny (Levi’s best-selling style is the 501).
‘The influence of street style on this is undeniable and the result is that we are seeing trends emerging upwards from the street to influence designers, rather than the other way around,’ says Lisa Aiken, Net-a-Porter’s former Fashion Director.
‘The street-style phenomenon, made possible by the growth of digital and social media over the past decade, means that we now have endless inspiration at our fingertips. We can see how real people make trends work for them in real life, rather than solely through the creative filter of a major fashion house.
‘This has undeniably made us more adventurous, more confident and far more attuned to our own personal style. In turn, we’re now more diverse in our denim choices, opting for pieces that work in our own lives, and not Kate Moss.’
Street (or Instagram) style, with an eye on sustainability, has reigned supreme over the last year. And, since we’ve barely changed from sweatpants for a while, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the women of social media and fashion week alike have turned to baggy ‘dad-style’ and vintage ‘mom-style’ style jeans for AW22 (and beyond).
Plenty of embellishments, crazy styles and uncomfortable shapes are out of the door, with a premium being placed on classic shapes, without elastic, and perhaps with a small twist.
Barrel leg, straight leg, boot leg, asymmetric and baggy jeans are all big winners this year, as seen everywhere from Victoria Beckham and Celine to Gucci. And while low-rise jeans have been threatening a return for some time now, we’re thankful mid and high-rise jeans are here to stay for a while longer.
To find out exactly what the biggest denim trends of 2022 are, we spoke to denim expert Kelly Harrington and Libby Page, Senior Market Editor at NET-A-PORTER, to learn more.
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