Bye-bye skinny jeans, hello “mom jeans.”
The world might finally be entering into the early stages of a new denim cycle. One where tight-fitting pants are suddenly out of style, and instead shoppers young and old are flocking to loose-hanging, wide-leg and flared jeans, according to the CEO of Levi’s. It harkens back to a fashion trend that was especially prolific in the 1990s.
“This is not the first time we’ve seen this resonating with consumers,” Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Chip Bergh told CNBC Thursday, about the more loose-fitting denim styles. “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 said Levi’s started to notice an uptick in sales in these new styles of jeans when it launched two different fits early on last year: One pair of jeans that ballooned out at the bottom, and another that was high-rise at the waist and loose fitting.
“They’re definitely taking off, and it is definitely a new trend,” Bergh said about the jeans, for both females and males.
The shift has been driven in large part by younger consumers. Gen Z is all for the so-called mom jeans.
“Some people have said that this is going to create a new denim cycle, and we think that that could very well be true,” Bergh told CNBC. “The last real denim cycle was driven by skinny jeans. And that cycle lasted about 10 years.”
“I don’t think skinny jeans are ever going to go away completely,” he went on. “But clearly right now we are seeing a very strong demand for these looser fits, both the men’s side of the business, as well as the women’s side of the business.”
