Skinny Jeans Are Out – 9 Alternative Styles
Hold up, are skinny jeans out of style? According to TikTok, yes, and Gen Z has drawn a line in the sand with the side part hairstyle, the excessive use of the laughing face emoji, and your beloved skinny jeans are canceled. So if you are presently wearing said skinny jeans with a side part, which is clearly not the superior hairstyle, this post is for you — and be sure to check out my trending jeans for fall post here.
Fashion trends come and go, and while skinny jeans were a revelation in the mid-2000s, I’m here to tell you, skinny jeans are officially dead. If you’re over 30, you lived through the rise and fall of baggy jeans and the departure of extra low-rise jeans…which rumor has it, they have been threatening to make a comeback. Dear Sweet Baby Jesus, please, for the love of all the fashion gods, never bring back whale tails and jeans. Not even Britney Spears can rock those anymore.
If you’re feeling out of the loop, you may be asking yourself, if skinny jeans are out, what’s in? Don’t worry, I’m here to keep you cool.
Table of Contents
9 Alternatives To Skinny Jeans
1. Wide-Leg Jeans
My prayers have been heard. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of wide-leg jeans. The cut of the wide-leg can be high rise, mid-rise, crop, or full, and they are straight through the hip and thigh. I pair mine with a cropped sweater or slim-fit white tee and almost always a belt.
HIGH RISE PLEATED WIDE-LEG JEANS
HIGH RISE WIDE LEG JEANS IN OLIVE
(if you read Beautiful Distractions No. 29, you saw these greenies in yellow)
2. Baggy Loose Fit 90’s Jeans
Yes, you read that right, those loose-fit 90’s jeans are back! All this gal needs is a flannel shirt, Doc Martens, and some Pearl Jam…then all would be right in the world.
CRISS CROSS BAGGY JEANS (these give me all the Z.Cavaricci feels)
HIGH RISE DISTRESSED MOM JEANS
3. Barrel Leg Jeans
For me to get on board with these, I think I’m going to have to try them in-store. I have big enough hips from having babies that I’m unsure if I want to accentuate that part of my body even more. A barrel cut is going to be more fitted at the waist but roomy in the hip and thigh with a tapered leg. I’m eyeing these high-rise barrel jeans because they have almost a boyfriend fit to them.
(take special notice of those loafers…we’re gonna talk about that in a moment)
4. Tapered Leg Jeans
If you’re not quite ready to burn your skinny jeans (which I’m not saying you should), try on the tapered leg jeans. They gradually narrow towards the ankle and have that same inverted shape. It’s kind of a skinny jean and straight-leg two in one.
CROPPED TAPERED LEG JEANS (a bit pricy, but super cute)
TAPERED LEG JEANS WITH TIE WAIST
5. Bootcut Jeans
Yes, bootcut jeans are trending, but that does not mean you can dig your old hip-huggers out. The bootcut jeans of 2021 have a higher waistline (again, thank you Sweet Baby Jesus), a slimmer cut, and less of a flared ankle. Bootcut is definitely a trending denim style you’re gonna see a lot of this year. They look super chic paired with an ankle boot.
6. Flare Leg
These are not your 70s style flare…well unless you’re shopping Gucci they aren’t. Slim fit through the thigh with a slight flare at the knee. I’m loving these high-rise destructed vintage flare jeans.
FLARE CROP JEANS IN MID-GRAY WASH
7. Boyfriend Jeans
Similar to the straight-leg jeans, but more relaxed through the hip and thigh. I love boyfriend jeans. They are soft, comfy, and the loose fit allows for movement, but buyers beware. Since they are slightly slouchy and oversized, you can quickly go from laid-back cool girl vibes to frumpy and ill-fitting.
DESTRUCTED HIGH WAIST BOYFRIEND JEANS
DISTRESSED SLOUCHY BOYFRIEND JEANS
8. Straight Leg Jeans
Fitted through the hip and thigh, with a straight leg down to the ankle. Straight-leg jeans hug you in all the right places and give off those old-school vibes. They’re a great basic that rarely goes out of style. In fact, I still have my favorite pair tucked away in the maybe they’ll fit again drawer. A pair of Chip & Pepper jeans…RIP…make my butt look so good. Because all the celebs wore them, hunting a pair down was a feat. They were harder to find than a Cabbage Patch Kid doll in the 80s. I’m on a quest to find a pair that fit as well, only for my post-baby body.
LOW RISE VINTAGE STRAIGHT JEANS
HIGH RISE RELAXED STRAIGHT JEANS
9. Cropped Jeans
It should be said that almost all of these skinny jeans alternatives can be worn in a cropped style. However, I’m going to throw another curveball at you. Try wearing your cropped jeans with socks and a pair of loafers. And no, I’m not talking about those no-show socks; I’m talking a pop of color or something with a bit of an ankle. Think back to the penny loafers of the late ’80s.
In short, skinny jeans are officially the new mom jeans. We hear you loud and clear Gen Z. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of skinny jeans, so when I discovered they had been declared old and uncool, my breakup with the skin-tight denim was swift and quick. It also might have been easier because I’ve been wearing sweatpants for the last 365 days. And now that I foresee a post-pandemic return to everyday life sans sweatpants, I promise to rotate a few of these different styles into my wardrobe. Will you?
Chanel Van Zile
Hi KY-The one thing I just don’t get about this style is WWWWhhhhhyyyy are these new style jeans so dang short Sister????
Love Chanay
kyla
Chanel Van ZileBecause the fashion gods hate people who live in the snow LOL.
Chante Brown
Sorry, but I hate every one of these styles. Is there some reason why we can no longer be individuals and enjoy wearing whatever we choose, instead of being dictated to by some Generation Whatever who decides to impose their dictates and dislikes on everyone else? I’m 95 lbs and a size 000 and don’t want to wear “mom” jeans, baggy wide legs, or anything else. If you like them, great. I like my skinny jeans and could care less what some entitled toddler thinks. Guess what, Gen Z? You’ll be older too one day and someone will laugh at YOUR fashion sense.
Nadja
Chante BrownJust do whatever. I’ve happily worn UGG’s for 20something years. Summer, fall, winter and spring. If you want to follow trends, do so. If not – don’t For some of us, it’s a free world.
Jayden
Chante Brownplease why are u so mad
Chante Brown
JaydenNot “mad”. Just tired of being dictated to by an entire generation who thinks they invented the fashion wheel and wants to impose their will on EVERYONE. Guess what? Some of did it first and don’t want to do it again, don’t like these styles and don’t look good in them. If you do, great. But stop telling everyone else what they must do and let people choose for themselves. My choices are no one else’s business. At a size 000 and 95 lbs., these styles are hideous and look terrible on me. I’ll keep my skinny jeans, thank you.
Marie
Chante BrownAMEN to that!!!!! I am a size 5/7 and I look damn great in well-fitting jeans and pants. Why do I want to look like a walking dressed balloon?
Celine
Biden better cut me another check so I can boost the economy just to replace my skinny jeans what about leggings is that out to I live in leggings.
kyla
CelineAccording to Gen Z, leggings are perfectly acceptable
Nadja
Enjoyed reading it all.
Thank you.
Thank God I live in the countryside with my horses. Skinny jeans makes it so much easier to just put on a pair of boots when I go out the door 20 times a day, and the horses don’t care if I’m “hip” or not as long as I come bearing hay.
Still I like to read about it, so my teenager doesn’t make fun of me when we go out. (You know in early 2020 before the virus)
TLane
I’m not taking any fashion advice from Gen Z who thought doing tide pod challenge was cool. Ill happily rock my skinny jeans!
Connie E. Casarez
Hi KYLA, thanks for sharing such a detailed article about jeans keep up the good work!
Sophia
This is fan behavior lol
Joshua Watkins
I think that if the kids wanna wear them then that’s great. But the real reason why we did this as kids was to stick it to the man screw all politics we knew then that’s politics were terrible. And the ones we wore didn’t look like floods.either do and represent or do it your guys way and look like your abandoned ship lol
Glen Nicholson
I find this whole topic hilarious. I’ve been buying (from London)and wearing wide leg, crops, denim boiler suits, boot cut AND skinnies for more than five years. This suggests these children are a bit behind the trend. I will also add that I’m in no way going to listen to ANY advice about anything from a “generation” with the attention span if a knats, and like everything else in their lives, claim authority of opinion while doing nothing to have earned qualification.
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Karen
Got it. Bring out my 80s and 90s jeans.
Kyla Herbes
KarenYes you do!!!!
Dawn
Kyla HerbesExactly! I don’t need to go shopping!