The Era of Skinny Jean Is Over: Check Out These 5 Modern Denim Styles

After enjoying years of dominance, the era of skinny jeans is finally coming to an end while the pepperier versions are slowly hogging all the limelight. Sure, Kate Moss still wears those skinny jeans occasionally, but we living mortals are not Kate Moss, unfortunately.

And ever since the skinny jeans have lost their charm, pairing them with any outfit just doesn’t feel good enough anymore. And we’re not alone who thinks that way. Fashion editor Alexandra Stedman points out how she feels that as she grows older, she doesn’t want to wear the body-hugging fabrics anymore and just wants to feel cozy and comfortable in slightly relaxed clothes.

And the trend right now matches with her choice, it seems. More and more people are moving away from those skinny silhouettes to more comfortable and relaxed ones.

Camille Charrière, who is a creative consultant and writer agrees that skinnies were not her most favorite clothing ever. She points out how she always had a hard time getting out of them.

She further adds that with age, the boyfriend jeans tend to suit more, rather than the skinny ones. Her favorite brands? She says that she likes Monki, Levi’s, and H&M.

But how exactly did skinny jeans find themselves fall down the pecking order? A former editor at Elle’s Donna Wallace believes it was the jeggings that ruined the whole skinny jeans domination. She says that the moment designers started making it more and more stretchy, it lost its value amongst denim lovers. Add to that the fact that elastane used in the jeggings or skinny jeans is not eco-friendly and cannot be recycled.

Our taste in what is cool and what doesn’t keep shifting and while we feel a little bad that skinny jeans would not be forever, we feel better knowing that our fashion is taking a great shift and that makes us excited for the future.

The first brands to go back to the classics back in 2014 were the Marques’Almeida and the Paris-based Vetements. And they did quite well in reminding us that before it became a staple, jeans used to be thick, stretch-free, and a bit of a fashion statement.

The design and fabric isn’t the only thing that has changed. Designers point out how people shop for pieces of denim differently now. Instead of buying a specific type and sticking to that, people now build an entire jean wardrobe and have all sorts of jeans with different washes, cuts, and shapes to match what they want to wear on a specific day.

Proof? More and more brands are now in the process of launching different jeans types and some like Levi’s are already expanding their product offerings in the pieces of denim section.

People are just buying different varieties of jeans, and most are not skinny ones. Net-a-Porter reports suggest that the denim sales shot up by over 25% last year.

The impact of street style cannot be denied, and we are seeing more and more designers getting inspired by the street trends, rather than how it was before.

Social media has played a big role in promoting the street style culture and has helped designers come up with tons of inspirations without having to work or experiment too much. They have real people trying different styles and that helps designers understand what works for most people in today’s world, rather than them just designing something for aesthetics.

Another facet of this shift in jean design is that people are getting more and more comfortable trying out new stuff and are far more adventurous than they ever were. And brands don’t mind that as they can expand their offerings to cater to a wide variety of audiences and help them create their personal style.

Street style or the Instagram style has turned to baggy mom-style classic jeans over the last year with a focus on sustainability.

The crazy styles, uncomfortable shapes, and cuts are definitely no longer a part of the fashion, with an emphasis more on the classic shapes now, albeit with a bit of tweak.

Boot leg, baggy jeans, barrel leg, and asymmetric jeans are all major hits this year, with everyone from Celine to Victoria Beckham and Gucci offering them.

We talked to Kelly Harrington, who is a denim expert, to figure out the top 5 denim styles that will reign the year 2021.