Pure jean-ius
Can generations patch up differences over denim?
It’s a typical Thursday morning at the Route 66 jeans store in Auckland.
Here, the average customer is a 44-year-old woman, and right now two people fitting that description are in the changing rooms trying on pants. By 11am, four pairs of jeans have been sold to other customers, which is about right for this time of day.
Everything about this morning is utterly normal, says owner Todd Male, except for one small change.
‘‘None of the jeans being tried on, or the ones we’ve sold today, are skinnies.’’
Reports of the death of skinny jeans have been flowing for months. They were once dubbed the trend that refused to die, but the reign of the skin-tights has been declared well and truly over, at least by a younger generation trying to tell everyone else what to wear.
Generation Z – broadly defined as anyone born between the mid1990s and 2010 – fired the first shots on social media platform TikTok; mocking the skinny jeans beloved by the Millennial generation before them.
There were videos instructing people to burn the pants, biff them away or cut them up into something else – like cleaning cloths. Lame Millennials should stop wearing them to try to look younger, said the kids, who declared the trend ‘‘cancelled’’.
News and fashion headlines followed, and baggy jeans, flares, boot cuts and ‘‘mom’’ jeans – those high-waisted pants from the 1980s and ’90s – were back.
Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh last month told CNBC that the fashion world could be in the early stages of a new denim cycle. The last one, led by skinny jeans, lasted about 10 years.
Vice-president of Global Women’s Design at Levi’s, Jill Guenza, says that’s still the case.
‘‘With looser and straight fits dominating in 2021, skinny jeans are taking a back seat, but they will never be left behind.’’
Although those baggier fits from the 1990s are currently a major trend, the company is seeing a wave of ’70s influences as well: Flares are definitely back.
‘‘And last, but certainly not least we are seeing looser, slouchier silhouettes emerging as the next big denim trend embraced by young influencers.’’
The move to comfier pants began before lockdown, and, asked what the company predicts we’ll all be living in for the next decade, it’s the ‘‘iconic’’ straightlegged 501 of old that gets the vote of confidence.
‘‘501s are the jeans I will be returning to again and again for the next 10 years, no matter the trend.’’
Firstly, says Peter Shand, Generation Z can all rack off.
The associate professor, head of Auckland University’s School of Fine Arts, and ‘‘absolute cardcarrying Generation Xer’’ says every generation has its moment declaring what is or isn’t in fashion, but this time it’s more like an attack.
‘‘... It can start off as a bit of fun, but then it just turns a little nasty or toxic. I don’t know how serious their claims are, but we can take it as a bit of a joke.
‘‘It’s a tribal, generational moment, it would be interesting if Millennials responded in the way Gen Z want them to respond.
‘‘No self-respecting Millennial
is going to take s... from some upstart Gen Zer.’’
Shand says Generation Z have been influenced by celebrities like Billie Eilish whose clothes are baggier and more relaxed.
Jeans were once a strictly utilitarian item for US gold miners, made from the cheap and durable denim largely used as wagon coverings.
Denim began appearing in the fashion magazines in the 1930s, but it was the teenagers of the 1960s – the now-Boomers – who donned them under the influence of films like Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild Ones.
‘‘Boomers were having a go at the previous generation by wearing inappropriate clothes, and giving two fingers to that generation about how straightlaced they were. It was about making some form of statement of class or group identity, then it just takes this astonishing growth into an absolutely stock standard garment,’’ Shand says. Where once the fashion houses and runways dictated new fashions, social media and influencers now have a strong say in what’s hot and what’s not. ‘‘Put simply, if they’re not going to be sold to a significant portion of the market then they won’t be produced.’’ Whether we’ll be dictated to by younger generations or, well, anyone, the decision to biff perfectly good jeans in the bin isn’t one an ethical shopper takes lightly.
‘‘If you want to get proper Gen Z-ish, we should remind ourselves that it takes 7000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans.’’ And while Shand says the old adage of ‘‘wear whatever makes you comfortable’’ is true, it’s not a completely literal interpretation. ‘‘Comfort is not just about the feel of a particular fabric on the body, comfort is also an emotional or psychological thing about how one feels in society.’’ Daniel Steer has noticed a drop in the number of skinny jeans heading out the door of the Wellington Hurricane Denim store he manages. He estimates sales have fallen about 30 per cent. ‘‘Calling it a ‘death’ is a bit of an extreme description because there’s still demand, but there’s less of a market share for skinnies.’’
It’s been a gradual decline over the past three years with consumers now favouring wider and looser fitting styles; straight legs, mom jeans and boyfriend fits are the main go-tos now.
‘‘It’s a mixture of that comfort thing and that fashion cycle. Everyone is dressing like the early 2000s and late ’90s at the moment.
‘‘Flares have done a massive comeback as well, and we’re constantly hearing ‘‘Oh I wore that 20 years ago’’ and ‘I’m not ready to do it again’.’’
Steer has ditched his own skinnies for the time being but asked if any diehard fans should feel embarrassed about sticking with theirs, he doesn’t hesitate: ‘‘Definitely not . . . as long as you like it, it’s all that matters.’’
Stylist Stacey Beatson says skinny jeans have become a classic, and that’s just how the fashion pendulum swings. Although she doesn’t believe the trend is dead, the growing popularity of different styles is a good thing.
‘‘It’s great for people to have choices and for a long time they were very limited – they were low rise skinny jeans and they don’t work for everyone.
‘‘More options mean more people can wear jeans and those who were staying away from them might come back.’’
Back at Auckland’s Route 66 store, the very typical morning is still unfolding.
Todd Male says he’s seen more than 30 years of denim trends come and go: If you wait long enough everything comes back around.
When it comes to jeans, that’s just business as usual.