Dust Those JNCO Jeans Off. Fashion Experts Proclaim Wide Leg Jeans Are Making A Comeback

WSJ- OVER THE past month, a particular photo of Ralph Lauren has been popping up persistently on my social-media feeds. It shows the Americana idol taking his bow after his company’s women’s fashion show in New York in 2005. His casual outfit (pictured, right) is ordinary for a designer performing a curtain call, except for one thing: The silver-haired Mr. Lauren is wearing supersize jeans. His mildly washed-out, barrel-cut denims make him look like a 1920s prospector or an ’80s b-boy about to pop and lock his way down the runway. They’re not quite as wide as JNCOs, the infamous ’90s jeans whose vast hems could accommodate a Subway footlong, but they’re still some spectacularly roomy jeans. And about 15 years after that photo was taken, the wide look is surging again.

Labels as haughty as Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta are selling gigundo tube-legged jeans for $595 and $980 respectively. For frugal denim-heads, Wrangler’s online shop offers 38 styles of “Relaxed” men’s jeans starting at $20. On Levi’s web store, the “Loose” selection of nine styles includes the “Stay Loose,” a very ’90s-esque baggy jean (pictured, below).

This return of looser legs could be read as a long-gestating backlash to skinny jeans which, with hems as narrow as 5 inches, defined the denim market for the past two decades—Mr. Lauren’s defiance notwithstanding. 

Like many, Mr. Ferrer now questions why he squeezed into skinnies for so long: Pulling on the comfortable straight-legged Levi’s 501s and 550s he wears now is like finally exhaling after years of sucking it all in. 

That huge sigh you just heard wasn't from every male in America in relief that they can go back to being able to sit down again without splitting their nutsack, or having to undo the button in their jeans. It was from Pres' stylist knowing they won't have to have his skinny jeans altered and taken in extra anymore.

What a day to be a past Hot Topic customer huh? That store used to sell jeans with legs so wide I could fit my whole body through them. You know the ones-

Designers can attribute the comeback all they want to our collective weight gain as a nation through the pandemic and sitting at home on our asses. But we all know that this was something much bigger sugar tits. Destiny. Fate. It was inevitable.

"Fashion goes in cycles… Duh" - Lady Feitelberg

So it was only a matter of time. 

Hopefully all you goth kids hung on to your JNCO's because everybody knows that rocking the legit "vintage" pair of something is way cooler than the "retro reboots". Doesn't just apply to Jordan's but devil-worshipping pants wear as well.