Jeans Are Getting Slimmer — Just Don’t Call Them Skinny

A good friend’s mom sent me a TikTok explaining how Louis Vuitton’s $160 lipstick was the ultimate “lipstick index” style mid-2020s financial crash-out indicator. While it’s still too early to tell if this is true, the sentiment of using fashion as a barometer for societal tides is well-founded. Another classic way to judge where we’re at is the rising and falling of skirt hems, but today, we are here to investigate the tightening of jean styles. The fashion world has promised the return of skinny jeans every year since Abercrombie & Fitch printed money with the style in the early aughts, and while they are not fully back, we’re on our way. The style du jour is not thigh-grasping, ankle-embracing skinny, but denim silhouettes have cinched in enough to call out.

The rise of streetwear-inspired denim in the mid to late 2010s — marked by Virgil Abloh’s time at Louis Vuitton, Demna’s reign at Balenciaga, and Alessandro Michele’s Gucci era — saw jeans expanding to their puddliest permutations. It wasn’t enough to have “baggy” pants; floor-grazing, dirt-sweeping denim became the It Girl uniform for both off-duty supers and street-style regulars alike. But as we have mentioned before, fashion is one giant pendulum, and it’s starting to swing away from the looser look. To be sure, the relaxed fit will still be popular for years to come, but the unavoidable tightening of jeans started on the streets this year with help from young models like Kai Schreiber to the best-dressed mom in Tribeca, Jennifer Lawrence.

Alix Earle made a spray-on-skinny jean with Frame earlier this year, and while some are committed to the thigh-to-toe skin-tight version, a less restricting yet comparatively slimmer silhouette is emerging as champion. Stovepipe and cigarette fits feel fresh in comparison to the low-slung, leg-obscuring pairs recently gaining traction. Re/Done’s fall campaign, as seen on Grace Burns and Meadow Walker, featured the leg-lengthening take on “slim”; the Spring/Summer 2026 runways also stretched jeans out, like at Dior, Area, Burberry, and Khaite, where the fit was slightly more midrise, slimmer on the thigh, and straight from the knee down.

So, with all this in mind, are you to throw out your puddling pairs of true blues? Definitely not, but maybe consider adding a slimmer style in to mix things up. A classic pair of Levi’s 501s you may very well have in the perfect vintage indigo is a great start, or consider the options below. As for styling tips? Alexa Chung’s cardigan feels right for a daytime look paired with ballet flats; otherwise, look to the runways and pick out a structured blazer à la Aaron Esh or Celine for a Euro-lite take. Whatever way you go, hold off on those ultra-skinny Hot-Topic-leaning styles (for now), and embrace the cosmopolitan, polished take sure to be huge when the spring collections hit stores.