Fashion experts, which jeans shapes do you think will be around the longest now?

[RaspberryThief]

I still wear and love my collection of skinny jeans, most of which I've had for donkey's years, but am conscious of feeling quite dated in them now that silhouettes are looser. But I also loathe fast fashion and don't want to invest in jeans that will look equally dated in a year's time. For those more expert in fashion than me, which shapes do you think will be around the longest now, in the sense of being at least vaguely on trend? Slim? Straight? Flared? Wide leg? I need to begin the tedious job of ordering various pairs to see what will suit me, but not sure where to start if I want a bit of style longevity.

For example, I was eyeing a pair of American Eagle skinny flares but not convinced they will look much better than my skinnies in fashion terms. Also wondering about Levi's slim or straight leg, and a beautiful pair of designer wide leg ones but I would be really upset if they looked dated by next summer as they are more expensive than I would usually go for. Barrel and balloon leg I really don't think I would like as silhouettes, and have a strong suspicion that I won't get away with mom jeans although I can try some and see if they are the ones most likely to stick around.

I know what you mean. I'm sure someone will be along any minute to either tell you skinnies will never die or to lecture you for taking notice of trends, but if you're thinking of investing significant money, it makes sense to think about longevity.

I'd say the difficulty with a big purchase right now is that the current situation, where you can find pretty much any jeans shape on the high street, is very unusual. I'm going from memory (which is getting less reliable) but normally when a trend changes, one style gets a stranglehold pretty quickly, whereas this has been going on for a few years now.

I think it's great that we've got all this choice, but because it's (possibly?) unprecedented, I'm wary of predictions. The only thing I think we can say with reasonable confidence is that the direction is away from skinnies, which got so extreme there was nowhere left to go.

So if you wear jeans a lot, my best suggestion is to throw yourself into it. We may never have this much choice at our fingertips again so why not make the most of it, try out a couple of shapes, but maybe hold back from investing too heavily in any single style?

Sorry if that's not quite the advice you asked for! If it helps, I don't think any shape will look dated by next summer - the change is normally very slow.

Straight jeans are a classic and have always been available. Proper skinny jeans (not jeggings) are also a classic that have always been available, as have tapered jeans. So called ‘Mom jeans’ are an American staple (high waisted with a straight or tapered leg) and again have always been available. Same with crops.

So by that logic you can’t really go wrong with those styles. Styles like wide leg / flare / boyfriend / girlfriend are more trend based and even the American stores that always do them like GAP tend to change their shapes regularly. So it you love a shape then just buy loads of them.

Like I've said my memory might be getting dodgy but I don't agree that all those styles have always been available at the same time on the high street. I remember Gap having a zillion different types of flare / bootcut but skinnies were nowhere to be seen (at least in my branch). I also remember when French Connection first got skinnies in (early noughties?) and thinking, 'Oh hello'. I think this level of choice is unusual.

I think if you want to be safe, Levi's 501 have been the mos consistent style for a long time now. Although, they get worn differently at times, ranging from tighter to looser, new or vintage, distressed, etc.

Like pp, I don't think there's really a method to it anymore with one dominant shape, it makes the most sense to just go for whatever works best for you and your lifestyle.

@Floisme

Like I've said my memory might be getting dodgy but I don't agree that all those styles have always been available at the same time on the high street. I remember Gap having a zillion different types of flare / bootcut but skinnies were nowhere to be seen (at least in my branch). I also remember when French Connection first got skinnies in (early noughties?) and thinking, 'Oh hello'. I think this level of choice is unusual.

I agree with this about skinnies - I wore them as a teenager in the early eighties, but they went out of fashion and you didn't see them in the shops until they became fashionable again.

@Floisme

Like I've said my memory might be getting dodgy but I don't agree that all those styles have always been available at the same time on the high street. I remember Gap having a zillion different types of flare / bootcut but skinnies were nowhere to be seen (at least in my branch). I also remember when French Connection first got skinnies in (early noughties?) and thinking, 'Oh hello'. I think this level of choice is unusual.

I used to wear skinnies at uni so late 90s and early 2000s. I bought mine from Levis, Cult, Urban Outfitters right on the high st. By the time Cheap Mondays were available I was already wearing straight leg jeans lol.

Fair enough but none of those stores were on my high street then - if you wanted jeans round here you went to Gap.

Yes, I'm sure you could always get skinnies if you specifically wanted them, but I was more thinking you wouldn't have seen them hanging on the rails in every high street fashion store.

@botemp

I think if you want to be safe, Levi's 501 have been the mos consistent style for a long time now. Although, they get worn differently at times, ranging from tighter to looser, new or vintage, distressed, etc.

Like pp, I don't think there's really a method to it anymore with one dominant shape, it makes the most sense to just go for whatever works best for you and your lifestyle.

501s are classics, but they are also worn by the likes of middle-aged men like Jeremy Clarkson, so how you style them is important.

Thanks for all the advice. I agree with you @Floisme that I don't ever remember seeing so many different styles around simultaneously. And when I tried to do a bit of googling as well as actual eyeing up of what stylish people are wearing around me, I just got a vague sense of "looser is in", but about a million different styles under that umbrella, so hard to know where to start.

I think I'll leave the skinny flares on the shelf as I think those might feel out of place quite easily, though I'm going to miss the tighter-on-the-thigh feeling of skinnies. I might start by trying a pair of Levis 501, though even there they seem to come in "slim", "straight" or "original"... Any advice about Levis sizing, @botemp? I'm very short and curvy; most of my jeans are from Topshop in a size 10. Would that be around a Levis 28 or 29, roughly?

I am still tempted by the wide leg ones (they're Maje, so not lethally expensive but still on the high end for my budget) but I would need some slimmer fit ones anyway, as I don't think I want to abandon that neater silhouette completely.

Also, at the thought of resembling Jeremy Clarkson....

I'm a size 6/8 hourglass, 5"4, while I can fit into a 25/26 inch original I don't like how those look on me or how they feel as they're 100% denim so no stretch at all (for all the derisiveness about skinnies, the introduction of stretch to denim made a huge difference to those with a large waist/hip difference).

I upsize, I can't remember if I bought a 27 or 28 but I tried on a few sizes. I also have a Levi's 501 pair by Re/done and I think I got that in a 28, I wear that one the most as it's so well worn in and soft. They're both a bit of a boyfriend/girlfriend fit on me and sit a little lower in the rise. There was quite an extensive thread on here about the sizing of vintage Levi's 501s, shouldn't be too hard to find again with advanced search. I make no resemblance to Jeremy Clarkson, I promise. I think it helps I don't have that egg on long legs body shape, and I don't go round punching people in the face when I'm hungry either...