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Skinny jeans seem to have taken another step towards becoming a forgotten cultural artifact — and men on TikTok are now throwing their pairs out for good.
Debates about skinny jeans have been hugely divisive over the past few years, as stylists and trend forecasters have labeled Gen Z as the generation that was leaving the classic style of jeans behind and opting for straight-leg styles and mom jeans instead.
Millennial women have confronted this news with confusion and alarm on TikTok, asking users to help upgrade their wardrobes and style looser-fitting jeans. Gen Z women have taken their questions as an opportunity to go viral with tutorials and tips about upgrading from wearing skinny jeans to rocking a pair of mom jeans, flared trousers, or corduroy pants.
Now, the men of TikTok have finally caught up.
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“POV you finally stopped wearing skinny jeans,” a May 16 post, which has 2.3 million views, by the LA-based creator Ethan Glenn read.
Glenn’s post transitions from a video of him wearing tight-fitting black skinny jeans to a slideshow of him in alternative looks, including wide-leg jeans, tailored pinstripe trousers, and green utility pants.
The TikToker received hundreds of comments that complimented him on the wardrobe transition, writing that skinny jeans were “dated” and uncomfortable. Several people asked Glenn where he got his new clothes, and he replied to one of his commenters by saying the new garments were “mostly vintage” items from eBay.
Over the past week, dozens of other men have posted videos with similar captions and formats to Glenn’s, as the anti-skinny jean montages have become a trend on the app, attracting millions of cumulative views. The videos typically utilize the same audio, a snippet of the Lana Del Rey song “Radio.”
A handful of women have gotten involved in the trend, posting videos showing off their boyfriends’ baggy-pant-filled wardrobes and saying they had to throw away their partner’s skinny jeans to encourage them to experiment with new styles.
Commenters are largely praising the men in these videos for diversifying their fashion choices.
“Wow the way my jaw dropped. It makes SUCH a difference,” one commenter wrote.
“Super effortless,” another user wrote.
Still, some commenters said they were not ready to get rid of their skinny jeans for good.
In January, Insider reported that skinny jeans are still flying off the shelves at Levi’s, where the two top-selling women’s items during the company’s fourth quarter were both skinny-jean-styles.
It’s likely that skinny jeans are here to stay, regardless of Gen Z’s disdain for them. “It would be foolish for brands to eliminate that style completely out of their selection,” the trend forecaster Mandy Lee told Input in 2021. Jeans, she added, are “just too classic of an item to really put limits on.”
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider’s Digital Culture team here.
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