Gen Z men are embracing baggy jeans

Gen-Z men are throwing out their skinny jeans in favour of baggier silhouettes.

With the ongoing skinny jeans debate causing a generational divide on TikTok, young men are showing viewers why they think baggy jeans are the superior fit. They’ve opted for straight-leg styles and mom instead of the skin-tight styles that dominated the late 00s and most of the 2010s.

While women on the platform have already deliberated extensively on the topic, men have begun to throw in their two cents on the contentious debate, largely saying that baggier silhouettes are more comfortable and less restrictive.

“POV you finally stopped wearing skinny jeans,” LA-based creator Ethan Glenn posted on 16 May. The video has since received 2.3mil views. In the video, Glenn showed how he transitioned from wearing tight-fitting black skinny jeans to experimenting with wide-leg jeans, tailored pinstripe trousers, and green utility pants.

It isn’t just Glenn showing off his style evolution, with many men this week alone taking to social media to compare and contrast their skinny and baggy jeans looks to the sound of Lana Del Rey’s “Radio.” Women have gotten in on the fun, posting their boyfriend’s much-needed closet makeover and throwing out their skinny jeans. Commenters have praised them for switching up their style, but others maintained their love for skinny jeans.

While women have been quick to hop on the baggy jean trend, men have reportedly embraced baggy jeans at a much slower rate, primarily because the trend cycle for men’s fashion moves at a much more glacial pace. “Men are really reticent to change,” Bloomingdale’s men’s fashion director Justin Berkowitz explained to the Wall Street Journal last year. “They found something they liked, they’re sticking with it.”

Since 2021, the silhouettes of men’s jeans and pants have only gotten bigger, baggier, and arguably better – at least according to fashion insiders. Both luxury fashion houses like Balenciaga and classic, affordable brands like Levi’s have increasingly been selling their twist on the trend.

Levi’s global VP of men’s design Janine Chilton-Faust noted to the outlet that the brand’s take on the trend – nine styles categorised under the “Loose” collection, including the 90s-inspired “Stay-Loose” jeans – pays homage to the street style found in modern-day skate culture. She found that “skate kids” often opted for wider, vintage-looking denim that allowed for greater comfort and mobility as opposed to skinnier silhouettes. She added that although the younger generation is “really gravitating toward the looser, baggier fits,” older customers are also notably gravitating to the baggier look.

While many say that the shift in style is all a part of the 15-year trend cycle, harkening back to when ultra-wide JNCO jeans were all the rage, some say that the transition is indicative of the state of the economy and replacing the hemline index.

The hemline index – first recognized in 1926 by Wharton Business School professor George Taylor – followed the idea that the hemline of women’s skirts signaled where the stock market was headed. If short skirts were in style it meant that there was an economic upturn, while the rise of maxi and midi skirts pointed to an economic downturn.

Douglas French of the Mises Institute argued that theory also applied to popular styles of jeans, regardless of gender. He said that skinny jeans were like mini-skirts, often donned during times of economic success. Millennials rocked skinny jeans in the mid-2000s as the housing and stock markets reached their peak before the recession hit in 2008. At the time, brands like Saint Laurent sold the thousand-dollar skinny jeans in their men’s fashion lines, meanwhile Pacsun and Hot Topic peddled super tight jeans to the so-called edgy subsect of early aughts mallrats.

Skinny jeans, however, continued to be popular up until the years leading into the Covid-19 pandemic, a period undoubtedly dogged by uncertainty. Baggier jeans and looser-fitting pants ultimately emerged as a happy medium between the athleisure worn throughout multiple lockdowns and the constricting skinny jeans of the previous decade. The silhouettes could be sleek and comfortable without compromising one for the other.

Men are more open to experimenting with these styles, whether it’s at their behest or the urging of their long-suffering girlfriends. Flared, baggy, or straight, the world is their oyster.