Skinny jeans hot for AW24? Two writers argue over the demonised drainpipe

AGAINST [Courtney Wittich]

Why are skinny jeans so controversial? In fashion’s greatest dilemmas – such as is the dress blue or is the dress gold – skinny jeans remain a point of massive contention, spanning across every age cohort. For some of us, we’ve never seen skinny jeans worn like how they’re worn now, and our best reference point is someone’s mother that we went to school with who won’t let the fad go. She’s been holding on for dear life, and quite frankly, stop trying to make fetch happen.

For others, skinny jeans are symbolic of the pipeline of the early 2000s that went from Vans Warped Tour Summer to Christian Girl Autumn. In these two major camps, one was wearing skinny jeans with oversized, DC shoes, studded belts and a scene hairdo, and the other with a peplum top and embellished waist. So why now, 20 years later, are skinny jeans such a hot topic again?

It’s hard not to miss all of the PR going into the skinny jean revival. It almost feels like Hailey Bieber’s publicist has another full-time job after the success of Rhode lip gloss and it’s subsequent vaginal phone case – and that is making sure Ms. Bieber stays in those drainpipe denims. But, just like this article in Vogue Business said, “James Harris, co-host of the Throwing Fits podcast, puts it, ‘The skinny jean era was such a blight on society that the pendulum swung violently in the opposite direction.’”

But these jeans literally did have us in a chokehold. Remember the woman in Australia who almost died from squatting in her skinny jeans for too long? Maybe we also need to revisit the beginnings of the last skinny jean era, and possible reasons it became so popular – there was the idea that the tighter your pants could be, and more suffocating your bottom half was, the more wild and free you could thrash at a show.

“Back in the day, jeans only had to fit a Nokia or maybe an OG iPhone that was smaller than the palm of your hand”

Another through line is smart phones. Back in the day, jeans only had to fit a Nokia or maybe an OG iPhone that was smaller than the palm of your hand. Denim and loose, baggy garments had to expand to compensate for our love-hate relationship with our growing devices, ones that tether us to “the real world”, “all our friends”, “memes”, “endless joy” – but really the advertising machine watching our every move. This machine is calculating and patient and knows exactly what we see on our glowing screens late at night. No wonder skinny jeans are about to make the comeback of the century – the marketing device knows you’ve just sold off or donated your last pair! 

@stringbeanboy13 smh brandy #fyp #brandymelville ♬ WHAT IS THAT MELODY - 💙🪐Lucy🪐💙

Aside from that, one can’t help but wonder if the skinny jean revival is intrinsically linked to the skinny revival. No, I haven’t heard the keywords heroin chic just yet, but it’s only a matter of time until we hit that point of 2000s style lexicon. After all, what do you think indie sleaze was based on? To further investigate, was heroin ever chic? As a friend recently told me, “I hate skinny jeans and how indie sleaze romanticised depressing methods of escapism to deal with our negative emotions. Do we really want that again?” 

The marketing machine validated groups of people that looked ill from the effects of too much drink and too much drugs. Even after all the Sweetgreen and Whole Foods and Erewhon and Crossfit, we’ve somehow ended up back here, just to have ozempic sweep the world for “easy” weight loss. At what cost? As we enter each day with more financial and environmental uncertainty, the runways reflect our imaginations. The narrative is changing as we tighten our pursestrings and belts, both literally and figuratively. Dazed recently reported that plus-size runway representation dropped substantially for AW24 across New York, London, Paris, and Milan – the new season catwalks suggest that fashion’s dalliance with body diversity is over. So, when you get dressed tomorrow, I want you to ask yourself, how did you feel the first time you wore skinny jeans? Are you the oppressed or are you in control? Do you know, and do you even care?

FOR [Emma Elizabeth Davidson]

Like it or not, skinny jeans are back, baby. Though it feels like an argument has been raging around them for aeons, as Millennials and Gen Z debated their ‘cheuginess’ as far back as 2019, now, they’re having a moment on the runway. If the last few seasons are anything to go by, it’s only a matter of time before the depop girlies are fighting over secondhand Topshop Joni jeans and wrestling them up their thighs in a tidal wave of GRWM videos.

Of course, as it so often does, it all started with Prada, which swung the fashion pendulum back in the direction of a skinny silhouette for SS23, at a time when the likes of Glenn Martens and Demna were battling it out to see who could send the most supersized denim down the catwalk at Diesel and Balenciaga respectively.

And then came the rest: at February’s AW24 shows, the skinny jean came thick and fast, with Mrs. P debuting second-skin denim at Miu Miu, Donatella Versace dropping punk-inflected drainpipes, and rising star Aaron Esh kitting his cast out in solely slinky styles (notably, Esh’s moodboards were awash with pics of Kate Moss and Pete Doherty during the late 00s, otherwise known as the peak years of the skinny jean). Even Demna’s denim shrunk at Balenciaga, and by the end of February, @databutmakeitfashion reported a 50 per cent jump in searches for skinny jeans. The numbers don’t lie, and the tides are turning.

But on their return? I’ll admit I was glad to see the back of the skinny jean as we rolled into the 20-teens. As someone who came of age – and didn’t fit the ideal mould for wearing them – when they were figuratively if not literally massive the first time around, the switch to slouchy, loose denim was a welcome change. But while Courtney argues that skinny jeans were constrictive, you can’t tell me that 100 per cent stiff cotton denim – sans any semblance of stretch – is any more comfortable than mooching about in skinny jeans. 

Beyond that, at least with skinny jeans there’s no chance of soaking up every puddle you slosh through on a rainy day, until the water reaches your knee and you develop a very real chance of developing trench foot. Not to mention I’ve lost track of how many beautiful shoes I’ve wrecked by pairing them with baggy jeans, whether from aforementioned water damage or the fact they act as a dirt magnet, sweeping grime and dust all over your pristine kitten heels or sneakers. A skinny jean abbreviated at the ankle is all the better for showing off your cunty new shoes and not fucking them up on the first wear.

Maybe it’s the rosy haze of nostalgia, but there’s also something really appealing about the vibe Esh tapped into, when the height of glamour was sinking pints and lukewarm wine in scuzzy bars with your eyeliner smudged all round your eyes. After seasons and seasons of ‘quiet luxury’ and the rise of the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic – both deeply problematic and rooted in mysogyny and racism in some ways themselves – as an inherently messy girlie, it’s exciting that fashion feels like it’s moving into something a bit more dishevelled and less pristine.

Like Courtney, one thing I am concerned about, however, is fashion’s recent regression when it comes to diversity. The last time skinny jeans were popular, they were only really proposed for thin, white bodies, by designers like Hedi Slimane and Raf Simons. This time around, I hope more people with different bodies feel confident enough to wear them, because, despite what the gossip columns and gross ‘circle of shame’ told us in the mid-2000s, it’s not just skinny bodies that skinny jeans look good on (and whether you're into the fit or not, your butt will look great). I didn’t pay much attention to that back then, and I hope a new generation, who are far more body positive than we ever were, will neglect to pay any attention to it now.

The best news, though? Wide-legs are going nowhere, so if you’re vehement in your hatred for skinny jeans and wouldn’t be seen dead despite what the runways say, honestly no one’s forcing you. So. Can we STFU about it now?