- Skinny jeans were Levi’s best-selling items in the fourth quarter, CEO Chip Bergh said.
- Despite trend predictions and Gen Z predictions of the “death of skinny jeans” for nearly two years.
- That said, loose jeans are selling well, as are mid-rise and low-rise jeans.
Skinny jeans aren’t dead yet — in fact, skinny jeans are Levi’s best-selling.
Levi’s said on Jan. 25 that the popularity of skinny jeans continues during its fourth-quarter earnings call. Even though the “death of skinny jeans” has been predicted for a long time. The best-selling women’s items in the fourth quarter were Levi’s 311 and 721, both skinny jeans, CEO Chip Berg said.
“Just as Mark Twain once said, ‘The news of my death is greatly exaggerated,’ I famously said my skinny jeans will never die,” Berg said.
For the past two years, trend forecasters and stylists have predicted the death of the skinny jeans. The cause of death is “Generation Z.” Unlike millennials, Gen Z has said goodbye to skinny jeans in favor of straight legs, boyfriend fits and so-called “mom jeans.” Even apparel executives have hinted that skinny jeans are obsolete.
“I wouldn’t say skinny jeans are dead,” Forever 21 CEO Daniel Kulle previously told The Washington Post. “There are some late adopters who are buying skinny jeans, but fashionistas who are conscious of the latest fashions are going ‘mama’ and ‘flare,'” Kre said.
Levi’s says these looser styles are also selling well — Berg said last week that looser, baggy styles accounted for half of Levi’s bottoms revenue in the fourth quarter. Still, “skinny jeans aren’t going away anytime soon,” he said.
But Berg also notes that the high-rise denim craze may end before millennials go wild (which is a frightening experience for anyone who’s experienced Y2K fashion in real time). Levi’s offers a range of ultra-high-rise denim products, including Ribcage, which launched about a year and a half ago, but the tide is turning.
“The popularity of jeans with a deep rise is declining. We haven’t reached the realm of hip hangers yet, but mid-rise jeans are the most popular at the moment. We will be witnessing the transition from low-rise to low-rise.”
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