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The Question of a Skinny Jean Revival
- Alanah Amponsah
- Jan 19
- 4 min read
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that 2025 was a huge year for denim wars.
The debate over who has “great jeans” has truly dominated cultural discourse thanks to a certain controversial American Eagle ad, proving, once again, that fashion is, and always has been, deeply political. The tension surrounding what might seem, to the untrained eye, to be a simple clothing item that almost everyone owns, reminds us that jeans are far more than a basic. Their endurance in fashion history cements them as symbols of identity and, by extension, of our constantly moving culture. So, as the debate over when skinny jeans will officially be “in" persists into the new year, it's worth remembering that in fashion, anything truly polarising never stays buried in the archives for long.
When Gen Z collectively decided it hated skinny jeans in 2020, it was less about the silhouette itself and more about what it had come to represent. The rejection was part of a broader, years-long effort within youth culture to push back against stagnation in the fashion industry. Once imbued with rebellious connotations, the skinny jean had, by the end of the 2010s, come to symbolise polish and uniformity–values that felt fundamentally at odds with the cultural moment.
The chaos triggered by the COVID era and subsequent lockdowns intensified this disconnect. There was a general sentiment of frustration in youth culture which manifested on social media in the form of not only unabashed political expression, but also in sharp critique of fashion’s restrictive, exclusionary standards. In this context, skinny jeans became shorthand for an era that felt out of touch with reality. The emerging aesthetic instead turned toward comfort, a slouchy sort of irony that mirrored the ‘anti-constraints’ ethos of a generation quite literally confined to their homes.
In the immediate years that followed, hating skinny jeans became a persisting trend in itself. They were relentlessly memed, dismissed as embarrassing relics of millennial taste, and positioned as the ultimate fashion faux pas. But in doing so, skinny jeans completed a familiar fashion cycle. Once something becomes universally mocked, it quietly begins its path back to relevance. In quite the same way that we saw the return of ultra low-rise bottoms and logo mania from cultural exile, skinny jeans are coming back because the tension that surrounds them creates conversation. The thing about buzz in fashion, is that regardless of whether good or bad, it always creates ideal ground for revival. Skinny jeans have effectively completed their punishment phase, and are more than ready to be reconsidered.
This, however, does not necessarily mean that skinny jeans will reemerge as the new default. Gen Z, or more broadly the social media generation, exists within platforms that accelerate trend cycles at an entirely unsustainable pace. The constant questions of “What are we wearing this fall?” and “What fashion trend do you hate right now?” fuel an echo chamber that leaves little room for genuine individuality. As a result, there is no longer a single correct jean silhouette and that is unlikely to change.
This is my real prediction for 2026.
The skinny jean revival that we saw in 2025 is less about the garment itself and more about what it represents. It reflects a growing realisation that individuality cannot be achieved by collective rejection alone. In a culture obsessed with being niche and with distancing oneself from the perceived sheep mentality of social media, choosing to wear skinny jeans becomes an intentional act of contrarianism rather than a passive one. Their return signals not a regression but a shift away from rigid trend hierarchies and toward fashion as a personal language. In 2026 skinny jeans will not completely dominate wardrobes again, but they will exist as an option reclaimed and recontextualised on one’s own terms.
People love to throw around the term “recession indicator” a lot these days, and while it is often overused, applying it here is not entirely misguided. The skinny jean’s revival arrives alongside a rising cost of living and a broader sense of political unease, a context that makes the return feel less coincidental. It is no surprise, then, that this shift aligns with a renewed interest in 2012 aesthetics, an era similarly shaped by recession. That indie sleaze, Tumblr-era moment of early digital self-expression resonates now because it offers a counterpoint to today’s hyper-curated online world. Messy, ironic, and emotionally charged, it appeals to a generation that is not only economically anxious, but deeply bored with the constant bombardment of microtrends. In this way, the skinny jean’s return is not about nostalgia for the past, but a reaction to the present.
The new attitude toward skinny jeans is simple: skinny jeans, but better. Their reappearance is not about reinstating them as the sole norm, but about positioning them alongside baggier silhouettes as a deliberate point of contrast. Worn intentionally, they signal divergence from dominant preferences rather than compliance with them. In this context, skinny jeans function less as a trend and more as a styling tool, one that reflects an evolution in how individuality is expressed in an era defined by overexposure and excess choice.
Jeans themselves have become the ideal vessel for this shift. Because denim is so universal and culturally loaded, it offers an accessible way to question how trends operate and how we engage with them. When everyone is talking about jeans, the conversation naturally moves beyond silhouette and fit, and toward intention and agency.
So, as we move into 2026 and beyond, the real question is whether this moment proves to be another fleeting fad or whether it signals a growing awareness of the limits of trend culture. If skinny jeans can return without reclaiming dominance, they may point to something more interesting than revival: a quieter recalibration of how trends are worn, rather than blindly followed.
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