With every trend that scales into mammoth proportion, its bubble often pops—and the whiplash is on the horizon. Denim is, of course, no exception. The wide-leg jean has spent the better part of the past five years being endlessly rebranded and repackaged as the mom jean, dad jean, boyfriend jean, horseshoe jean, flared jean, straight-leg jean, and the like. Perhaps it isn’t surprising, then, that as the Y2K nostalgia refuses to cease, the skinny jean would at some point return.
The silhouette remains divisive—and for good reason. The skinny jean is, more or less, a legging recast in denim, and not the most forgiving cut on many, if not most, body types. It would not be an exaggeration to say there was something of a collective sigh of relief when comfort achieved some level of cultural legitimacy: eventually becoming acceptable not only as casual wear, but refurbished as work and even formal attire.
As the skinny jean resurfaces, the inevitable pushback has followed—from myself included. Yet after surveying both the runways and the streets over the recent fashion week circuits, it may be time to acknowledge that its comeback is no longer speculative.
Though I myself was initially sceptical, there is no denying that the skinny jean still has a place within the contemporary wardrobe. Tucked into a knee-high boot, paired with a delicate ballet flat, or used to offset the proportions of an oversized coat or knit, the silhouette regains a certain elegance. There remains something undeniably chic about a slim black jean worn with a pointed stiletto.
This time, the skinny jean returns with a renewed awareness of its countercultural origins. Its strongest appearances have emerged not through polished styling, but through street style. In recent memory, the silhouette has become synonymous with millennial pragmatism: the oversized striped jumper, dark-wash ultra-skinny jeans, ankle boots. Yet its original appeal lay in its rejection of convention. Before it became a suburban wardrobe staple, the skinny jean was associated with counterculture, youth and sex appeal. Elvis Presley helped propel the silhouette into the mainstream, while actors like James Dean of Rebel Without a Cause cemented its association with masculine defiance. Its appeal was never simply aesthetic—it represented a refusal of the prevailing uniform.
Perhaps that same impulse explains its return today. As oversized silhouettes become increasingly mainstream, the skinny jean begins to function once again as a gesture of opposition. Fashion’s cycles are rarely driven by nostalgia alone, but rather, propelled by fatigue. While ultra-skinny jeans may not be poised to reclaim their former dominance, there is certainly a place for slimmer silhouettes in the denim discourse; or at least finding more middle ground.
No discussion of the skinny jean would be complete without Hedi Slimane—who has remained unwavering in his commitment to the silhouette even after much of the industry had abandoned it across his tenures at Saint Laurent and later Celine.
It is only fitting that Michael Rider, too, embraced the slinky slim Slimane leg for his Celine debut last year—and has since infused the silhouette with new life in almost every collection since. This includes the most recent spring/summer 2027 menswear collection, which featured a melangé of ultra-skinny denim forms cropped at the thigh, below the knee, or in the classic full length ankle cut. Even in Rider’s wider-leg iterations within the same collection, trousers skim rather than swallow the leg.
While the spray-on silhouettes of the late 2000s may remain firmly in the past, the pendulum is undeniably swinging away from exaggerated volume. And, even if ultra-skinny jeans may not be poised to reclaim their former dominance, the skinny jean might certainly find its place on the streets again. Here, a Vogue Singapore-approved edit of skinny denim—if you’ve got a penchant for pushing your sartorial bounds.
1 / 7
Agolde Ingram Split high-rise waist skinny jeans, $545
Available at MyTheresa.
4 / 7
Balenciaga high-rise skinny-leg jeans, $1,537
Available at Net-a-Porter.
