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What's wrong with skinny jeans?

263 replies

Nowimreallyworried · 08/03/2026 21:02

Just saw another thread about jeans and boots - and it occured to me that I've seen a fair few references both here and elsewhere that seemed to be saying that skinny jeans are now no longer fashionable. As in, quite outdated. Is that right?

I'm really not in to fashion per se but I do want to look at least presentable and nice. They're pretty much staple what I wear - with a t-shirt or jumper (not scruffy ones) and boots. Am I unwittingly making a faux pas??! Yikes!

OP posts:
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14
HappilyFreeNow · 09/03/2026 13:14

TamarindCottage · 08/03/2026 21:05

If you like wearing skinny jeans, just keep wearing them. Personally I never GAF what others think about my attire - it’s no one else’s business

This!
Most comforatable attire ever - will never give mine up.

Nellodee · 09/03/2026 13:15

My style icon is Philomena Cunk, and we’re both rocking our skinnies and our souls.

JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 09/03/2026 13:16

TracyBeakerSoYeah · 08/03/2026 21:59

Ahem Vogue says they're back
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/how-to-wear-skinny-jeans-90s-noughties-muses

Wear whatever jeans you want!

Except all the jeans in the article are slim leg not skinnies 😆🤣🤷🏼‍♀️

RanchRat · 09/03/2026 13:16

I have many pairs of skinny jeans and will not be replacing them, at 73 I hope they will see me out.

LGBirmingham · 09/03/2026 13:46

JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 09/03/2026 13:16

Except all the jeans in the article are slim leg not skinnies 😆🤣🤷🏼‍♀️

I thought they were skinny flares or boot cuts

Lourdes12 · 09/03/2026 13:54

We should wear jeans that suit our body shape, doesn’t matter what’s in fashion. People buy clothes because they are fashionable, then realise they never reach for them- because it doesn’t suit their body shape. What a waste of money but this is what consumerism is

PrincessHoneysuckle · 09/03/2026 13:57

I could only wear skinny for years then I discovered skinny flare jeans where its fitted around bum and thighs then flares out making shoe choices easier.

Isometimeswonder · 09/03/2026 13:58

Skinnies are OK with knee high boots, but I think they look awful with trainers or, heaven forbid, ballerinas.
But I always thought that, even when they were "in".

Gettingbysomehow · 09/03/2026 14:10

I think we need photos of us in our favourite jeans. Id love to see what you are all wearing. These are my current favourite wide leg summer light weight jeans from Cotton Traders. I buy occasional stuff from them, not a lot. Elasticated waist, 100% lyocell. I think these will be my jean staples this year.

What's wrong with skinny jeans?
Floisme · 09/03/2026 14:35

I really wish S&B posters would stop telling me to wear what suits my body shape. I understand a lot of women find it works for them but that doesn't mean you get to tell others how to dress.
Yes, I have tried it and I didn't enjoy it so I stopped.

Missey85 · 09/03/2026 14:41

Nothing I wear them every day 💕💕😊

Springspringspringagain · 09/03/2026 14:50

Petrolitis · 09/03/2026 12:47

Describing clothes as communication is a lot odder than saying that clothes have an in built cost both financial and environmental.

Places like Vinted have allowed people to shrug off the guilt of over consumption. Sure some people will have genuine reasons for putting stuff on Vinted, it doesn't fit or they need the money.

Plenty will just be bored because they've seen that palazzo pant style wide leg jeans are the latest thing rather than skinny. I regularly get deeply vacuous (thank you @GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER excellent choice of word) articles come up on my Google feed like 'all the cool girls will be wearing these jeans this season' or 'forget black, pairing these jean with this colour boot is what all the cool girls will be wearing'.

Even Vinted has an environmental cost. The energy costs involved in running such a massive platform, the energy involved in shipping second hand goods, the plastic waste that occurs from wrapping those goods to send.

Social media/advertising is incredibly pernicous at getting us to spend money and waste the earth's oh so precious and limited resources. Demonising skinny jeans or trainer socks by labelling them out of fashion is or dated is so irresponsible, it will just lead to waste going to landfill.

I'm not a saint, I'm not immune to advertising however I am making a concerted effort to only buy if I've actually worn something out. I recommend Community Clothing for ethically UK made & sourced timeless pieces that you can wear until they wear out.

So maybe my 20 year old Gap vest that I put on Saturday just gone (that I didn't realise I had a hole in until I was two hours away from home) communicated that I'm poverty stricken, or scruffy. Which just goes to show what rubbish communicators clothes are because if my Gap vest could actually talk it would say, I've done long service, my time is up and I will now be cut up for rags because my owner wants a decent planet for her child..

So perhaps we should worry less about what clothes say, what influencers say, what clothes companies marketing departments say and worry more whether they are good for the pocket and good for the world.

I don't follow any influencers to see what to wear! I just look at the fashionable students, middle-aged women, and those whose style I admire in my local area, and they aren't wearing skinnies in the main. Especially not the students.

I think Vinted is a great platform and I don't feel remotely bad about this use of the internet over any other internet use. Community Clothing is great too, but jeans on there are a minimum of £100 and I haven't ever paid more than £40 for jeans, and buy mine for around a tenner. I don't see what's unethical about reusing clothing, either from charity shops, Vinted, or pulling out something from the back of your own wardrobe. Each to their own budget. I used to love charity shops but you don't get great quality reused clothing in them now in the main.

I very much doubt if you had a serviceable crinoline you'd be out and about in it as it hadn't worn out!

PandaKitty · 09/03/2026 14:56

The Vogue article mentioned in another thread, that is not my recollection. It was flares and bootcuts that were in fashion in the late 90s early 2000s because I remember as I was around then and young. You only have to watch Friends, no skinnies in sight

Brightlittlecanary · 09/03/2026 14:59

Pudmyboy · 09/03/2026 11:26

Thank you for your responses @Brightlittlecanary and @EnterQueene , I have found a different article which specifically mentions skinny jeans and their return:
https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/fashion/shopping/best-skinny-jeans

To be fair we can find plenty of articles saying the opposite, I’m not going to post as there is an article saying whatever you want it to say. And it’s pointless.

ClipJoint · 09/03/2026 15:01

I think a lot of the views on jeans you’ll see on MN are a bit extreme.

Of course there will be styles that are having their moment on the high street (barrel, carrot) and styles that are less of the moment, but I honestly think we are in a bit of an ‘anything goes’ period right now.

I work in a fairly fashionable area of London - a lot of youngsters, a lot of style-conscious women of all ages - and I reckon I’ve seen every type of jean and trouser style going just on an average day’s commute. Still plenty of skinny black or dark grey jeans with boots, styled both casually (DM type boots) and smart (riding boots). Lots of very loose, wide legged jeans with trainers on the very young women. Lots of straight leg jeans. Then a sprinkling of carrot/barrel/Mom/flared/bootleg jeans.

Esmereldapawpatrol · 09/03/2026 15:05

I am so pleased skinny jeans are out of fashion, I hated them. I remember reading an article by a stylist years ago who said that they were the most unflattering item of clothing your could wear.

I LOVE my barrel leg and wide leg jeans, so much more comfortable!

giddyboo · 09/03/2026 15:17

TamarindCottage · 08/03/2026 21:05

If you like wearing skinny jeans, just keep wearing them. Personally I never GAF what others think about my attire - it’s no one else’s business

Same.

Brightlittlecanary · 09/03/2026 15:19

Esmereldapawpatrol · 09/03/2026 15:05

I am so pleased skinny jeans are out of fashion, I hated them. I remember reading an article by a stylist years ago who said that they were the most unflattering item of clothing your could wear.

I LOVE my barrel leg and wide leg jeans, so much more comfortable!

They are unflattering for most and I think people have lost sight of it. I’m old enough to remember the horror people felt when they came in fashion, and I’d assume lots of threads like this.

the reality is very few people look good in them, it’s just they are used to the look.

most people look like they have turnip legs, or are cut off at the ankle, few wear really good ones, lower end ones with too much stretch are the worst, and people pour themselves into them, thinking it makes them look smaller, or they are a smaller size, they don’t.

but I do think it’s important to wear what you feel comfortable in. But I’m not sure pretending they are on trend is really going to be believable . They simply aren’t.

It doesn’t mean people aren’t still wearing them, Christ go into London turn round three times and you will see everything from flesh coloured leggings, one piece body suits, to oversized massive jeans. Just as someone wears them doesn’t mean it’s current.

personalky I’m no more going out in skinny jeans than I am in a pair of flesh coloured leggings, it took a long time for everyone to move to skinnies, with lots of horror expressed a long the way, and people clinging onto their boot cuts for dear life, and I think it will be a long time before it swings back to skinnies , at least a decade.

righr now it’s all about fluidity, but enough deviation In style people can find whay works for their bodies, and straight through wide legged, is always more flattering, than a pair of crammed in skinnies cutting uou off at the ankle.

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 09/03/2026 15:21

Gettingbysomehow · 09/03/2026 14:10

I think we need photos of us in our favourite jeans. Id love to see what you are all wearing. These are my current favourite wide leg summer light weight jeans from Cotton Traders. I buy occasional stuff from them, not a lot. Elasticated waist, 100% lyocell. I think these will be my jean staples this year.

Here are my current favourites - barrel jeans from Cos. I have these in light denim and ecru/beige too.

What's wrong with skinny jeans?
PandaKitty · 09/03/2026 15:23

It’s annoying as I have a few long line blazers and loafers that I loved wearing with my skinnies but these don’t look right with wide leg/baggier styles. I have pointed boots with a low heel that I’m wearing with my wide legs but these are not comfortable for walking about in that much. And then you need longer ones for wearing with heels and regular length ones for wearing with trainers or flats

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 09/03/2026 15:26

They will have to pry me out of my skinnies. Skinny and straight jeans suit me, wide leg trousers make me look as though I am auditioning for clown school. So I wear what suits and is comfortable not what 'fashion' says I should wear. Nobody has recoiled in shock yet.

Brightlittlecanary · 09/03/2026 15:30

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 09/03/2026 15:21

Here are my current favourites - barrel jeans from Cos. I have these in light denim and ecru/beige too.

See, I will be honest, I don’t like thid look at all, i don’t think it’s flattering, but it is on trend. I also don’t find skinnies flattering on most, and they are not on trend.

for me it’s straight, flare or wide legged, and I think there is enough deviation in what’s on trend we can do what works for us and still be current.

80smonster · 09/03/2026 15:34

Illegal.

DancingNotDrowning · 09/03/2026 15:45

I love @Judystilldreamsofhorses look!

these are mine, the seem to photograph narrower than they feel but I love them and they’re super comfy

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What's wrong with skinny jeans?
Nannylovesshopping · 09/03/2026 15:48

I have never looked good in skinnies, but am loving tu barrel legs, also have fab dark green barrel sweat pants from next, fabulous, you’re welcome😀

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