LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – When Gen Z influencer Alix Earle published a TikTok video on Jan. 23, 2025, styling skinny jeans with a cropped leather jacket and knee-high black boots, she could not have anticipated its monumental effect on the fashion world.

Earle’s video was met with backlash and admiration from fashion connoisseurs who endorsed and opposed these slim-fit pants. Gen Z critics, in particular, commented that skinny jeans should be left in the past due to their unflattering and uncomfortable silhouette.

However, Earle’s video created an admiration and grudging respect for skinny jeans.

“Skinny jeans are way more flattering than baggy mom jeans! Never got rid of mine,” said TikTok user @Linnya24.

Suddenly, these previously unwearable pants are considered the pinnacle of fashion and nostalgia for the 2010s. As of Feb. 2025, #skinnyjeans on TikTok has over 146,700 posts, often tagged in TikToks with #thealixjean and #momfashion. Fashion TikTok, or #FashionTok, is filled with videos of millennials and older Gen Z making videos showing off their ways to style skinny jeans.

“Skinny jeans are so back,” said TikTok user @lisa.lingr in a FashionTok styling skinny jeans.

In 2025, streetwear baggy pants may be a thing of the past, marking the revival of 2010s culture. Because of the resurgence of skinny jeans, logos, streetwear, peplum tops, and ankle boots, they are anticipated to share the spotlight and the runway.

A blast from the past:

Millennial nostalgia behind the skinny jean revival

With the revival of vintage fashion, like 2000s whale tail low-rise jeans with rhinestones and 1990s baggy clothing, it was predicted that the 2010s ‘trashy punk’ look might make a comeback. However, no one could have predicted that skinny jeans, a classic yet unpractical pant, would resurge.

For decades, jeans have fluctuated in and out of style due to their limited comfort. Despite the rising trend of athleisure in the early 2000s, skinny jeans were revered for their effortless style and fashion. During the end of the 2010s, these skinny jeans began to fade out of trends in favor of more comfortable baggy jeans.

Millennials have patiently waited for skinny jeans to return in style.

“It brings back good memories for me of being young in the 2000s. It reminds me of my childhood,” said TikTok user @lindsarnold, millennial skinny jean enthusiast. 

Outside social media trends, skinny jeans have also become a symbol of nostalgia for the 2010s for both millennials and older generations. Levi skinny jeans, worn by various celebrities of the 2010s generation, such as Selena Gomez and One Direction, symbolized pop culture in the 2010s. Celebrity endorsement and versatile appeal made skinny jeans a go-to fashion item.

These prized slacks were sold everywhere as popularity increased due to the desire to mimic movie stars and singers. Abercrombie and Fitch, Forever 21, Ralph Lauren and Aeropostale, iconic brands for the 2010s teenager, offered varying styles, fits and colors of skinny jeans to keep up with their rising demand. In fact, on Black Friday in the 2010s, millennials pushed and shoved for low-price skinny jeans, which they paired with high-top Ugg boots and low-top white sneakers.

To many who grew up in the 2010s era, skinny jeans serve as a reminder of their experiences of their childhood and teenage years, reacquainting millennials with the forgotten pop culture of their youth.

Gen Z backlash against skinny jeans

Opposing millennial obsession with skinny jeans, Gen Z fashion enthusiasts favor baggy jeans and parachute pants.

“I cannot wear skinny jeans. I think they look ugly and they hurt so much,” said Los Alamitos High School sophomore Claire Claypool.

Teenagers agree with Claypool, explaining that skinny jeans are outdated in a new era of wearing tracksuits, oversized 1990s clothing and pajamas for a fashionable yet effortless comfortable style. On #GenZTok or Gen Z TikTok, youths express their disgust for the 2010s style, instead opting to wear light-washed baggy jeans, styled with oversized t-shirts and comfortable tennis shoes.

The differing generational opinions about skinny jeans reflect the differing fashion culture for millennials and Gen Z.

Since Gen Z grew up in the late 2010s and 2020s with fashion focusing on comfort, unlike millennials, they lack the nostalgia for skinny jeans. However, millennials enjoy skinny jeans because they reflect the put-together and celebrity-focused culture reflected in 2010 fashion.

Gen Z’s emphasis on rapper and hip-hop style 1990s clothing likely stems from the late 2010s and 2020s rise of rebellion against traditional feminine beauty standards, as a way to show a woman’s toughness, move comfortably and express oneself without focusing on one’s body shape. Teenagers also prefer baggy clothing for style, using baggy clothes to focus on their fashion’s individuality and creativity, rather than their body shape. 

Meanwhile, millennials grew up in a prosperous era, with an expression of celebrity culture and individuality in fashion. Often copying popular celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber, millennials wore skinny jeans to express femininity, beauty and fashion by showing off their shape. Different types of skinny jeans could also show what types of celebrities you support as well as help someone blend in with the cult following of skinny jeans obsessors. With everyone from your peers to supermodels like Kate Moss fawning over them, skinny jeans became an essential part of the millennial wardrobe.

The differing perspectives on the skinny jeans revival reflect the culture of different generations. With Gen Z’s preference for oversized, slouchy garments versus millennial inclination towards formal, fitted dress comes the understanding of the intense difference in experience, interests and lifestyle of different generations.

However, whether you prefer skinny jeans or baggy jeans, if you are a millennial or Gen Z, there is no doubt that skinny jeans are back and are ready to stay!