Skinny jeans: The bottoms we can’t get out of

Are skinny jeans finally, at long last, starting their decline? The form-fitting cut has dominated denim—women’s and men’s—for a decade and more, and despite many predictions of their imminent demise, they’re still enduring. Even so, fashion is based on cycles, and styles that come must eventually go, right? The stakes are bigger than just being on trend. Retailers have lamented the persistence of skinny jeans because they rely on shifts in fashion to get people shopping. If everyone already has a closet full of skinnies, they don’t need to buy more. But when a large-scale change happens, of the sort that defines the look of a decade, people get to buying. That’s what Richard Hayne, CEO of Urban Outfitters, believes is happening. For several quarters, he’s been talking about a change in the bottom silhouette shoppers want, saying it’s driving a “macro” shift in style. “Now, why it’s so important, let me explain, is that when the macro fashion changes, the proportion changes,” he said on a call with investors last year. “The customer is bound to go out and basically and redo her whole wardrobe.” Era-defining changes don’t happen overnight, though. And if skinny jeans really are on their way out—which is still a big if—what’s next? 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Skinny jeans July 22, 2019 Clinging for life --------------------------------------------------------------- Are skinny jeans finally, at long last, starting their decline? The form-fitting cut has dominated denim—women’s and men’s—for a decade and more, and despite many predictions of their imminent demise, they’re still enduring. Even so, fashion is based on cycles, and styles that come must eventually go, right? The stakes are bigger than just being on trend. Retailers have lamented the persistence of skinny jeans because they rely on shifts in fashion to get people shopping. If everyone already has a closet full of skinnies, they don’t need to buy more. But when a large-scale change happens, of the sort that defines the look of a decade, people get to buying. That’s what Richard Hayne, CEO of Urban Outfitters, believes is happening. For several quarters, he’s been talking about a change in the bottom silhouette shoppers want, saying it’s driving a “macro” shift in style. “Now, why it’s so important, let me explain, is that when the macro fashion changes, the proportion changes,” he said on a call with investors last year. “The customer is bound to go out and basically and redo her whole wardrobe.” Era-defining changes don’t happen overnight, though. And if skinny jeans really are on their way out—which is still a big if—what’s next? 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Help build the future of journalism with Quartz --------------------------------------------------------------- 👉Become a member to unlock full access to all of Quartz’s global reporting. 👉Get exclusive CEO interviews and video series that show how the global economy is changing faster than ever before. 👉Go deeper with access to Quartz’s journalists and editors with member-only conference calls, exclusive events, and the chance to pitch editorial coverage. [Start free trial]( Giphy By the digits [91:]( Pounds that late designer Karl Lagerfeld said he lost to fit into the designs of Hedi Slimane, credited with helping popularize skinny jeans among guys at Dior Homme [2006:]( Year Time magazine dubbed the skinny jean fashion’s “biggest trend” [6%:]( Increase in US sales of women’s skinny jeans versus the prior year as of September 2018, according to NPD Group data [23%:]( Price increase in wide-leg styles from 2016 to 2018 [40%:]( The skinny jean’s approximate share of all women’s jeans sales in the US in 2018 [1.24 billion:]( Pairs of jeans sold worldwide every year Reuters/Charles Platiau Quotable “There is that idea of androgyny, which is associated to my silhouette and design since the late ‘90s, and I presume a reflection of how I was, and how I looked growing up, the lack of gender definition. I could recognize it and feel a connection at the time with ‘The Thin White Duke’ character of Bowie. This is pretty much the origin of everything I did in design after that, a boy or a girl with the same silhouette.” —[Hedi Slimane]( Origin story A silhouette with legs --------------------------------------------------------------- A change in the denim silhouette is arguably due. Historically, one has come about every 10 years or so, [according to]( Sidney Morgan-Petro, the retail analyst at forecasting firm WGSN, and the skinny era took shape around the mid-2000s. That’s when paparazzi began snapping model Kate Moss in her powder grey skinnies [by London label Superfine](. On the runways, Hedi Slimane at Dior Homme and designer Raf Simons captured attention with their slimmed-down men’s looks, Slimane in particular offering what then-New York Times critic Cathy Horyn [called]( “the tightest, lowest-riding jeans in the business.” The look wasn’t totally novel. Slimane was drawing on the style of rock and punk acts from the 1970s, as was Lucy Pinter, who cofounded Superfine in 2003. “I wanted to make a cool skinny jean. Ramones style, but more fashion,” she once said in [an interview](. “Amazing to think of it now, but back then no one made one.” In pop culture at the time, around the edges of the commercial pop that ruled, an indie rock resurgence tinged by 1970s influences had crept up, embodied in bands such as The Strokes (and their drainpipe jeans). The moment was right for a skinny renaissance. The cut has carried on since, largely shedding its rock connotation, getting adopted [by hip-hop]( and becoming softer and stretchier as the rise of comfortable yoga pants [pressured denim to adapt](. It’s still the predominant style. Edited, a retail technology firm, found that across nearly 36,000 pairs of jeans it tracked on e-commerce sites, about 44% were skinnies as of July—likely even more since it tallies “distressed” styles separately, even if they have a skinny cut. But that’s actually a slight dip from last year. The skinny has become so standard that people looking to stand out are turning to other shapes. Morgan-Petro noted that high-waisted styles with a wider leg have been gaining popularity, pushing past the early-adopter stage into mass commercial appeal in 2018, and looking set to keep “pushing into the mainstream audience for years to come.” In a [recent report]( fashion search engine Lyst actually said skinny jeans are no longer the most in-demand style on its platform. “Over the past year, there are 12% more searches for ‘straight leg jeans’ than ‘skinny jeans,’” a company spokesperson told Quartz. Time machine Denim silhouettes are so integral to an era’s fashion that you can practically date a piece of pop culture just by the cut of its jeans. But as trends change, some styles that may have seemed like a good idea at the time can look less attractive in retrospect. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu Pop quiz Which rapper called out other rappers with the lyrics “[you] jeans too tight, you colors too bright, your voice too light”? Kanye WestKendrick LamarWiz KhalifaJay-Z Correct. That’s right. He also claimed he didn’t fit in skinny jeans, though in the years since he’s been known to wear them from time to time. Incorrect. Nope, sorry. As punishment you have to wear skinny jeans in the stiffest raw denim you can find for a month. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Skinny jeans? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – Vocabulary lesson Macaroni --------------------------------------------------------------- (n): One of a small class of young English fops in the 18th century known for their exaggerated fashion, and arguable forebears to today’s extremely slim-fitting pants. “You can trace the skinny fit right back to the mid-18th century and a youth movement called the Macaronis,” Sarah Niblock, an academic specializing in visual culture, [told The Guardian]( in 2013. These aristocrats were said to have cultivated their tastes during a “grand tour” of Europe, returning with a preference for worldly foods, such as [the pasta they’re named for]( and continental fashion. The typical outfit consisted of slim, brightly colored clothes complete with fancy wigs and heeled shoes. Their look, meant to [communicate the superiority]( of their class, quickly went out of fashion, but for a time to be “macaroni” meant to be sophisticated, which is how the term is used in the well-known lines from the song “Yankee Doodle”: Yankee Doodle went to townA-riding on a pony,Stuck a feather in his capAnd called it macaroni. As [Atlas Obscura explained]( “In ‘Yankee Doodle,’ then, the British were mocking what they perceived as the Americans’ lack of class. The first verse is satirical because a doodle—a simpleton—thinks that he can be macaroni—fashionable—simply by sticking a feather in his cap.” Watch this! Jennifer Lopez and Jimmy Fallon face off over tight pants in an inexplicably weird late-night skit. Fun fact! In 2015, doctors in Australia attributed [muscle and nerve damage]( in one woman to squatting for an extended period in skinny jeans. But don’t worry, your skinny jeans aren’t likely to be a health hazard. Poll Are skinny jeans soon to be dethroned by another cut? [Click here to vote]( Yes, and it’s about time!Don’t hold your breath. It will be years before the skinny hands over its crown.You will have to pry our skinny jeans out of our cold, dead hands. 💬let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about [bad banks]( 53% of you said you don’t entirely trust your bank to keep your money safe, “but I don’t have much choice.” 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20bad%20banks&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 🎲 [Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Marc Bain]( edited by [Annaliese Griffin]( and produced by [Luiz Romero](. The correct answer to the quiz is Jay-Z. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Obsession? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. Not enjoying it? No worries. 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