Styling skinny jeans

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This morning I clicked over to Madewell dot com and was greeted with the following:

Interesting.

I spoke in my last post about how many clothing items are sold to us as some sort of Final Object, “buy this and you will never have to again!”, especially clothing that is associated with durability like workwear. The thing is, denim is absolutely not forever — or at least, it hasn’t proven to be outside of something like a 501, for which popularity waxes and wanes in a cyclical fashion.

Take the skinny jean. *eughh*. It’s anathema to even consider the thought of jumping up-and-down into or peeling them off ever again. No other trend defined the 2010s like the skinny jean. No other singular item of clothing had the reach, the depth, the breadth. And we did it to death! A trip to any thrift store denim aisle now is inseparable from the velvety texture of a stretched out skinny jean. We have learned from our “mistakes’ — it’s all rigid denim now, loose silhouettes. Everyone made fun of the barrel jean at first, but I’ve seen more and more people jumping on the trend. Maybe they really are the next big thing in jeans, who knows. Low-rise jeans are back as well, although many of us who went through that trend the first time are quick to point out that “low-rise” today is not the true tramp-stamp-bearing 2002 version.

The denim cycle makes me furious more than any other type of trend cycle. The thing is, I really DON’T have the money to buy new jeans every time a new silhouette drops. In the past four years alone we have gone from straight-leg high-waisted jeans, to low-rise straight-leg jeans, to low-rise baggy jeans and now we have come out with barrel jeans because we have exhausted every silhouette at a pace that is no longer sustainable (necessity is the mother of invention, I guess). I don’t want Ribcage jeans! I don’t want Agolde jeans! And yeah, no one is putting a gun to my head to buy them. Nonetheless, all of us on fashion Substack like to say we are impervious to trend cycles and encourage others to do the same, but the rubber really hits the road when it comes to outdated jean silhouettes. We have such negative associations with an outdated pair of jeans that wearing a style that has passed through the trend cycle and off the cliff to the donation pile is enough for people’s perceptions of the coolness of your outfit to go from hero to zero, just like that. Even within fashion Substack, we aren’t so bulletproof! We generally put our money where our mouth is, wear vintage from different eras — but the buck stops at jeans.

And yet, we simultaneously have this cultural perception of jeans as being the classic, feel-good, look-great essential item of clothing. In an ideal world, in an ideal pair of jeans, all of our asses would look like Tom Cruise’s ass in Top Gun. What is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants about if not the perfectly fitting, confidence-boosting elusive pair of jeans of a mysterious non-descript silhouette?

I love a creative constraint, so today my challenge for myself was to style skinny jeans. I thought that if I could overcome my acquired ick around skinny jeans, use whatever plasticity in my brain is left and rewire it to find them cute, I think I could be powerful enough to exist on a liminal plane outside of time and trend cycles (I’m being ridiculous, but you get what I’m saying). What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, etc.

The Outfits

I started out with a very run of the mill, standard Levi’s jegging. I used to have two pairs of these same jean, dedicated to them as I was. I do think this particular pair, given the low rise, dates back to middle school. If you zoom in (maybe don’t) you can see where the elasticated fibers have failed below the crotch and in the knees. I always cuffed these in the 2010s, so that’s how I styled them here.

Why reinvent the wheel here? The tried and true skinny-jean formula is oversized on top, legging silhouette and tiny shoe on bottom. I think it works.

Another oversized on top, small shoe on bottom moment. But I really think we must ask ourselves, is this a bad outfit? The thing is, I don’t necessarily think so. Is it particularly revolutionary? No. But if this were a fashion blog in 2014, would you see the above two outfits and say “jotting that down!” I’ve even modernized them with some trendy objects: the ALOHAS version of Sambas, mary janes, a vintage Coach bag. But also, I serendipitously discovered the reason why I don’t gravitate towards this particular cardigan very often nowadays. I think that in part it’s because it just looks right with skinny jeans and I don’t wear skinny jeans anymore. Not horrible for first attempts. But I didn’t pat myself on the back and call it a day there!

Same outfit, different shoe

One more outfit with these jeans, but no oversized top. I think the swinginess of my slipover (the one from this post) helps broaden my torso to balance the skinny bottoms in the same way the oversized silhouette does, but there’s something about my butt not being covered that makes me uncomfortable. Ohhhhh right… this was the era of wearing a thong every day. Can’t say I miss that.

Next pair of jeans — these are from Uniqlo, I thrifted them, and they were too short so I let the hem out because we were doing raw hems at the time (another trend that I didn’t like all that much when it was popular and don’t like now). I will be honest — I hate this. I added more accessories to detract from these stupid jeans. I know it’s partially just my personal body dysmorphia but what is it about these skinny jeans vs. the first ones that gives me such a bad case of Pixar mom butt?? If I had to guess, I would say that’s why I always styled those jeggings with the cuff rolled up, to visually break up the skinniest region of my legs, add width to my ankles, thereby softening the contrast between my ankles and hips. I took this photo, set down my phone, and dropped these directly in the Goodwill box that was sitting to the left of the mirror. I think this is an important reminder that even among similar items that are trendy, e.g. if these were wide or straight leg jeans as is la mode du jour, there are some items that may fit you better from one brand/size vs another.

Me in these jeans

Same outfit again, but I switched into the final pair of jeans: a high-waisted pair from Everlane. Important distinction here: these are still skinny jeans, but the first pair were jeggings and so these look a little more straight legged by comparison. Again, I don’t find these awful to style (except for the folly of high-waisted but more rigid skinny jeans that are difficult to sit down or eat in). If you just think of them like the pants Audrey Hepburn wears in Funny Face, then it’s easier to take them out of the context of the 2010s.

Blatantly attempting to re-create the Funny Face look, but I couldn’t bring myself to add the black loafer and went for a brown one instead. The slightly straighter leg helps avoid the Pixar mom butt dysmorphia, again by softening that contrast between the width of my hips and the width of my ankles. Maybe I should try a kick flare to follow that train of thought even further? I’ve had these on the brain for a while. Any kick flare lovers out there?

Oversized on top with the narrow silhouette on bottom just hits!

Finally, these jeans need to be about 2” longer for me to avoid looking like Ron DeSantis, and I acknowledge that. I come back to the question, though — is this a bad outfit? If the jeans were the correct length, maybe not.

My conclusions after all this are that it’s not the item itself as much as it is the overall effect of the outfit, and that I could maybe be brave enough to wear skinny jeans out of the house! This is not about skinny jeans in particular, but breaking out of trend cycles to really find the silhouette that works for you.