23-05-2025
What denim trends tell us about fashion and society
One of the most hilarious things for me as a queer fashion observer is how straight men and older millennials seem to have become a greater market for skinny jeans than gay men. It's hilarious because wearing skinny jeans is something that used to get me picked on and called F-slurs, among other things. And gay men are known for setting trends, not following them. So, yes, we become the butt of jokes because we're always ahead. We tend to prioritise individuality, probably because we rarely fit in.
You may have come across many articles and think-pieces over the years talking about the death of skinny jeans, but a stroll on any busy South African street makes it clear skinny jeans are not going anywhere. Whereas the cut used to dominate, now it's just one among many that people love en masse. Yes, new styles appear, like Gen-Z's current preoccupation with baggy fits, but they tend to coexist with many others. At times they are just an update of what's been popular before.
This year, for example, a Vogue panel of experts reported eight different styles they believe to be in style for 2025. 'As we transition from cooler, winter months into early spring in 2025, we see loose, flowy silhouettes leading denim trends,' said Jill Guenza, global VP of women's design at Levi Strauss & Co, telling the fashion bible early this year, in reference to northern hemisphere seasonal trends. In the same article, however, they spoke of the bootcut's return; the denim capri; the simple straight leg variety; tailored shorts; curved-leg jeans; jeans with ties, belts and trims; and different types of denim maxiskirts, some plain, some with patchwork stitching.
It's a wide range of styles that makes it hard to define an era by style in the way that bootcuts defined the 1970s and skinnies defined the early 2000s, well into the 2010s. It's not just denim. Across fashion, styles are no longer a reliable indicator of a cycle; it's become more about individual mindsets. I can think of several reasons why this might be.
Writing for Harper's Bazaar, Amy de Klerk observes: 'The idea of seasonal trends, however — and those fleeting of-the-moment must-haves — has been rightly questioned in recent years, with the fashion industry attempting to rework itself onto a more sustainable path as the climate crisis becomes an unavoidable issue.'
While I agree, this feels far too abstract and less grounded in the everyday realities of dressing up. The proliferation of fast fashion, globalisation and the impact of social media means people are less beholden to what designers put their models and celebrities in. Influencer culture means the fabric of celebrity and the associated influence has been brought into question as people's attention has largely shifted from traditional media and red carpets to watching and following ordinary people who present a wide variety of ways of being, authentically.
Consumer preferences are changing based on a variety of reasons such as climate-change, exposure to information (the recent questions around the cost of producing luxury comes to mind) and economic pressure (more urgently). It's not a choice for many to opt out of mainstream trend cycles; their pockets dictate that they should.
We have thus, effectively, entered a no-rules era not just for denim but all sorts of fashion, in a way no different to how institutions have lost trust — something we see so clearly demonstrated by increased challenges to the global political order. It's not unusual to hear people say they don't believe anything reported in the news, or that news organisations are biased, but will believe anything a TikTokker with zero credentials says in a post lacking research or fact. There are little to no consequences to spreading mis- or disinformation. It's a free-for-all!
Increasingly, economists and politicians around the world are grappling with the idea of a multipolar world free of the US' century-long dominance of global affairs. We're even discussing how the euro might take over from the dollar as the preferred currency in global trade, owing to America's evident instability under its current administration.
Similarly, trends are no longer imposed top-down; they emerge sporadically, and brands have to respond to that by offering a variety of styles to cater to individual taste.
