Curious how others were feeling about the return of the skinny, I polled the PureWow editorial team and got a pretty wide range of responses, from “It’s an absolute NO from me dawg, a la Randy Jackson,” (direct quote from Assistant Editor Delia Curtis) to “I’ve never stopped wearing them!”
Curtis’s reasoning is in a similar vein to mine. They tell me, “I’m a Zillennial born in 1996, and skinny jeans always made me feel so insecure, especially as a kid who was always curvier.” Nakeisha Campbell, associated editor of news and entertainment, on the other hand, is all in—and has been from the jump. “I’m a millennial who’s been embracing this trend from the beginning, so this makes me happy,” she says. “I feel like this best fits my body type (bonus points if they’re high waist because I hate muffin tops). And I think they accentuate the bottom half of my body pretty well. I also find them pretty comfy and I love wearing them with booties!”
Somewhere in the middle sit millennial Rachel Bowie, PureWow’s senior director of special projects and royals, and Gen X Senior Editor Dana Dickey. Noting that she wore skinnies during the first go-round, Dickey thinkS they look good when worn in a stretch denim, high-waist silhouette, but notes that while working from home, “I want a more comfortable jean to wear for my 12-hour day, and don’t find skinny jeans as comfortable as boyfriend or wide-leg cuts. So, I like them as part of my denim wardrobe but not the main style I reach to wear.” For her part, Bowie says she never really gave them up, but appreciates that skinnies being deemed “out” encouraged her to try new things. She tells me, “I do think the fact that they were less in vogue over the years gently encouraged me to switch things up and experiment with other silhouettes, an experience I’m grateful for since it taught me that, even as a petite, I’m not limited to a single denim cut.”
So, if I’m wholeheartedly rejecting the comeback of skinny jeans, what styles do I like? Honestly, almost all of the others. While I love a wide-leg trouser jean or ultra-baggy fit, eschewing skinnies doesn’t mean going 180 degrees in the opposite direction; in my opinion, even a slim-fit style that skims the leg ever so slightly more than a skinny looks more stylish and refined. (A few examples of what I’m talking about below.)
