From a mining workers’ uniform to a sophisticated yet casual staple in wardrobes across the globe, denim, fabric, and jeans have come a long transformative way. One of the reasons jeans have become an integral part of our clothing picks is thanks to their sturdiness and versatility. Denim can be given different looks easily using varied washes, as well as coloured dyes. If taken care of well enough, denim can last you years before wearing off.
As per Statista, the market value for denim fabric, which was 21.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 is projected to increase to over 26 billion U.S. dollars by 2026, while the retail sales value is expected to reach a value of 71.8 billion U.S. dollars by 2027. This only proves how integral denim is to the clothing industry, given its popularity amongst consumers.
The Rise Of Skinny Jeans
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Although jeans were introduced to casual wardrobes well before the 1900s, they only became more fitted towards the mid to late 1900s. It was movies and celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Bridgette Bardot that helped make the garment largely popular amongst women as well. By the 1990s, the flare of the jeans had reduced to a straight cut. This gave way to the skinny jean in the 2000s. Most popular around the 2010s, skinny jeans found fans not only in women but also in men. With passing years, the skinny jean got more snug, stretchy and sculpting. The leggings and jeans hybrid, jeggings, were abundantly popular as well. High-waist silhouettes had taken over by now, giving consumers the holy grail of a high-waist skinny jean- something that would stay popular for years to come.
By 2015, skinny jeans formed 76 per cent of the denim market, followed by the boyfriend style at 10 per cent as per Statista. Most of this denim success goes to the fact that skinny jeans tend to work for most body types. Be it hip shaping, waist sculpting or seriously cinching, fashion brands gave something for every woman to obsess over. But like most other fashion trends, denim trends tend to be cyclical too. Towards the late 2010s, street style gave rise to the ‘90s favourite mom jeans, combining comfort and denim at its best. Just when the relaxed denim had started to hit the streets, the world slowed down owing to the pandemic and fashion took a 360-degree turn.
COVID-19 Fashion
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In 2020, it’s safe to say the world as we know it changed. With most people stuck at home, they turned to comfort clothing, giving loungewear and nightwear sales a huge boost. Brands came up with various collections of lounge pieces to boost sales and everything relaxed was in. Expectedly, denim sales took a hit. The wardrobe staple, which was a go-to casual wear staple saw the back of the wardrobe. With nowhere to go, the skinny jean especially took a back seat.
In the same year, denim giant Levi’s posted a 62 per cent drop in its global revenue; Denim focused brands like True Religion and G-Star Raw have filed for bankruptcy in April 2020 as well. In 2019, in America, consumers spent $17 billion on jeans, but as the pandemic hit, apparel sales were down by almost 40 per cent with jeans taking a major hit.
That said, 2021 has seen a boost in sales in light of the COVID-19 vaccine launch as well as the easing of restrictions. In India itself, the fashion retail industry is expected to show up to 25 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue, according to rating agency Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited (ICRA). After the distressing second wave of the pandemic that rocked the country back in April, the July-August period witnessed about 75-85 per cent of pre-COVID sales as per ICRA.
So where does the denim category stand today?
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While the denim category, much like other apparel categories has started to see an upward trend, a wind of transformation is underway. Runway and street fashion has seen a return of the relaxed fit in many a form. The most popular of them all is possibly the wide-leg silhouette, followed by the mom fit and the classic flared jeans. The skinny jean, however, is making less of an appearance in high fashion stores as well as on the runway.
A lot of this can be equated to the mix of comfort and dressy fits that are in demand more recently in the post-COVID-19 era. Most are resorting to “revenge shopping” buys, which basically means shopping to make up for the time spent at home without buying much. The others are shopping with a hangover of sorts from the pandemic which made people accustomed to the comfy wardrobe life.
CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., Chip Bergh told CNBC in an interview, “This is not the first time we’ve seen this resonating with consumers. Cycles do come and go. And I think the pandemic definitely played a contributing role to consumers looking for a more comfortable, more relaxing denim.” Bergh refers to the comeback of more retro styles like the flared fit, straight cut and mom jeans that were more common from the 1980s to the 1990s.
While this doesn’t mean no one is buying skinny jeans at all, it does point to a more obvious change in denim trends. Across the US and UK combined over the past three months, the more relaxed cut was responsible for 20 per cent of jean sellouts, skinny jeans at 14 per cent, as per Edited.com.
The GenZ Angle
With GenZ becoming more independent in taking their own spending decisions, the younger consumer is making for a dominant trend-setting dynamic. The GenZ consumer is not only more inclined towards a relaxed fit but is also taking to the return of Y2K fashion more open-heartedly, including the denim trends that come along with it.
The young consumer is also more inclined toward sustainable fashion as opposed to its older counterparts. This is another reason the skinny jean has been given more of a miss. To make skinny jeans favourable stretchy, the cotton used has to be blended with elastane, this in turn makes the fabric unfavourable for recycling. Relaxed denim, on the other hand, does not require any stretch and can be made from 100 per cent cotton. This gives brands the opportunity to provide more options for sustainable denim with relaxed fits. With many brands globally under pressure to adhere to sustainability goals, this gives them a clear alternative to opt for, when it comes to one of fashion’s bestselling categories. In turn, this also gives the new age consumer a clearly better option to choose from in place of skinny jeans.
Looking for your dose of sustainable denim in India? Here’s the ultimate guide you need
Also Watch: 5 Ways To Wear Skinny Jeans