Skinny Jeans Are Out, and Flares Are In—These Are the Brands With the Best Pairs

We’ve been talking about the demise of skinny jeans for years, but now they really have fallen from favor. At the risk of sounding harsh, skinny jeans are done. Two of fashion’s most respected news sources, The Business of Fashion and Women’s Wear Daily, recently made this bold statement.

Last month, WWD published an article entitled “Skinny Blue Jeans Are Headed For Extinction.” The writer quoted the sales rep of a denim brand, who put it plainly, saying, “Skinny jeans are not in right now. Flares and wide-cut jeans are in for the summer.” They interviewed multiple other denim brand representatives, who said basically the same thing. (Fun fact: Other sentiments expressed were that more and more brands are adding a hint of stretch to their jeans, and medium washes have replaced distressed ones for the time being.)

Just this week, The Business of Fashion entitled its Debrief podcast episode, “The Fall of Skinny Jeans.” They used market research to confirm that for the first time, skinny jeans have fallen behind straight-leg styles. But they also pointed out that the style still accounts for 30% of denim sales in the U.S., so it hasn’t exactly disappeared yet. B of F quoted Marie Pearson, SVP of denim at Madewell, who said that she’s never seen so many different types of fits and shapes of jeans selling.

All of that said, the style I’m here to endorse today is flare jeans, which the WWD article implied have replaced skinny jeans. Scroll to shop the brands that are making the best pairs of the on-trend style, and see how fashion people are styling them.

Reformation’s flare (and wide-leg) denim selection just keeps getting better, and the price point is considerably lower than most designer denim.

If you want your flare jeans to be super low-priced (as in below $50), H&M gives you tons of options to choose from.

If you love the classics, Levi’s should probably be your flare-jeans brand. Its styles feel authentically ’70s.

If you kind of miss skinny jeans, I advise you look into Frame jeans. Most of its styles actually look like stretchy skinny jeans from the knees up before gently flaring out at the bottom.

Good American makes flare jeans in a variety of washes and, even more importantly, in a wide variety of sizes.

I feel as though Mother’s designers have been preparing for the return of flare jeans for quite some time. It has so many styles, so if variety is your MO, I highly suggest Mother jeans.