We could be the peak denim wearing generation

Angie

As Laura, Skylurker and Classically Casual pointed out, the kids and youth of today wear jeans a lot less frequently. They wear athleisure stuff and leggings instead of jeans very regularly.

We could be the peak denim wearing generation, and it's quite the thought.

8 years ago

General

55 replies

Latest reply was from April

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

One more point. My nephew much preferred wearing athleisure stuff from ages 6 to 14. He's 16 now and has rekindled his love for jeans.

8 years ago

Aziraphale

Veteran

Hmmmm...I'll have to take a good hard look at the middle schoolers and teenagers I know. My perception is that jeans are going strong, although yes, there are lots of stretchy yoga pants out there, too.

Yoga pants may have replaced skirts, percentage-wise, from previous generations. I see relatively few teenagers in skirts.

8 years ago

Mochi

Veteran

I never thought about it, and you're so right. For my generation (and the previous one--I'm a tail-end Boomer, technically), jeans were a youth emblem. Yet I'm sure young people still all own jeans, right? Just not reaching for them as a leisure item or generational uniform. What do they mean to people now, then?

(I read about Iris Apfel. She said that when she was a teenager, she had to beg the guy at the Army surplus store to sell her a pair of jeans. Not only were they not meant for girls, but they had lumberjack associations, apparently.)

8 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Elisabeth, I see teens in leggings, shorts, joggers and jeans - that order. Hardly ever dressed up - not like we were as teens in the '80s - always dressing up when we weren't wearing our school uniforms.

8 years ago

carter

Veteran

I think my 24 year old daughter only has one pair of jeans...the same pair she's had since high school. In fact, I'm not sure she has a single pair of proper pants either. For her it's leggings (not athletic wear), dresses, shorts or skirts. Where did I go wrong;-)

8 years ago

Anonymous

Gosh, I used to wear DRESS PANTS to high school ! And liked it ! Even in my university days I dressed up...but that may have been a faculty-specific thing.

I think you could be right, Angie. I have an about-to-turn 20 year old, who wears jeans and Lulu tights about equally. Sweats aren't worn in public unless it's exam week (then it's a girl-uniform of a messy bun and sweats ) . And ONLY skinny jeans - she wouldn't be caught dead in straight legs, crops, flares or anything else....nor would any of her friends. It's so interesting. It's why it's the premium denim lines offering the most variety - because it's us older women spending all the money on jeans !

8 years ago

Aziraphale

Veteran

Little kids wear jogging pants here (we call them sweats), but not so much middle schoolers or teenagers. Might just be a region-specific thing. I see lots of leggings though. But boys wear jeans (or shorts, weather-permitting) almost exclusively.

The girls in my daughter's social circle wear jeans (or cropped jeans) more than anything else, I think. I drive several of them to school, and I usually note what they're wearing. One girl always wears what are really jeggings, but they've got 5-pocket styling like jeans.

8 years ago

RoseandJoan

Veteran

Yes, I took note of those comments too, I will have to pay more attention to what the teenagers are wearing.

8 years ago

Anonymous

I used to wear dress pants, and sometimes dresses, to high school in the late '70s. It's so much different now, isn't it?

8 years ago

Peri

Veteran

Okay, wow...now I'm going to start counting my student's wears. Interesting.

8 years ago

Anonymous

Yep, the order is the same where I am.
The girls don't try to cover their bums either. Maybe this is part of looking different from their parents.

My daughter (11) only wears leggings, and loves Keds and Toms shoes. She says jeans are too uncomfortable and dresses are too "baby" and all other shoes are ugly. My son (8) vastly prefers his Puma track suits to jeans, but maybe when he's 16 he'll change his tune

It IS a bit funny to think that when I'm 93, my jeans might be considered frumpy.

8 years ago

Eliza

Veteran

I have a 26 year old who wears a lot of denim when out on non-work days. She also is always in loungewear when home longer than 3 minutes, though she never wears leggings.

Agree with others that generations like to set their own course, apart from how their parents dressed.

8 years ago

skylurker

Veteran

Wondering the same thing as Mochi : do jeans still hold a rebel youth image?
I have no idea what little ones are wearing. I think teenagers mostly wear skinnies here. Leggings were big for a while but they have subsided. Also, joggers are associated with a subculture (US rappers, bad boys) so they're not common on the more bourgeois students I see around.
I'm only putting down vague impressions...I'm curious about the real data, what they're actually buying in the fast fashion emporiums for instance...

8 years ago

Greenjeans

Veteran

Fascinating thread, Angie. Neither my husband nor I, Gen-xers, are big on jeans. He hasn't owned a pair in years and much prefers work pants, Carhartts, painters pants, khaki shorts in the summer, that sort of thing, and won't even try jeans on. I am willing to give jeans a go now and then but because fit is an issue no matter what size I am I do find them challenging. I agree 100% with what you said in your post today that they're a great way to dress fancier things down and that's what's keeping me looking.

I am trying a bunch of jeans on right now after years of not buying any and am shocked at how much the fabric has changed. To me jeans means something made out of 100% cotton denim, a rugged casual pant inspired by vintage work pants. The newer jeans, I've tried on - even supposedly quality jeans - are a lot thinner and more plastic-y feeling than I remember jeans being. A lot more cheaply made and fake-seeming. Self-consciously sexy. It's like they look like denim, but don't feel authentic to me.

Of course, these things are cyclical, but I'm wondering if fabric quality could be feeding the trend you're noticing?

8 years ago

Anonymous

Some teenagers if they see their mom wearing skinny jeans think (that means old people wear these) yuck. I am just saying I thought the same. LOL

8 years ago

LaPed

Veteran

I think the odd shift is that kids wearing "joggers" aka sweatpants is now seen as actual fashion, while I think for many in the elementary school bracket in particular (especially boys) it's always been a decision made purely for the sake of comfort. My younger brothers wore nothing but cheap sweatpants until probably the beginning of high school, when suddenly sweats were for little kids and geriatrics, and they switched over to jeans and cargo pants. I was a tomboy, and pretty much always wore jeans from the get-go!

I still see lots of young girls, tweens, and teens in skinny jeans -- that seems to be the standard here, esp since boot season is so long. When I do see girls wearing sweats or other athleisure gear, it's almost always team gear sporting their school logo.

8 years ago

always trying

Veteran

I have been wondering why there are so many jeans on blogs, especially Blogovin, and pinterest. I see a lot of ripped jeans on girls around here. either leggings, skinnie jeans or ripped jeans seems to be the most popular. outside of school there seems to be a bit too much of the over ripped jeans. You know, the kind that you would not let your kid out of the house in.

8 years ago

Joyce B

Veteran

I suppose jeans will become mature type of wear at some point?
As long as I can have nice jeans it's OK with me.

8 years ago

Elizabeth P

Veteran

My DD's (10 and 12) don't own jeans. There was one summer when they'd wear jean shorts (about age 8-9), but that's it. The oldest asked for some once, wore them twice and then it was back to the leggings.

8 years ago

Gail

Veteran

My 24 year old daughter doesn't own a pair of blue jeans I think she has one pair of black. It is leggings and dresses for her. She hates jeans as she finds them uncomfortable. My older son wears jeans , younger son very rarely. He wears athletic clothing he does swim in college so doesn't have a lot of time to wear them !

8 years ago

Greenjeans

Veteran

Another thought, just like it's easier to travel west from the east than vice versa, it's a heck of a lot easier to make the transition from jeans to leggings than leggings to jeans from a pure comfort point of view.

8 years ago

rachylou

Veteran

What a thought! I definitely don't see BLUE jeans much, except on the elderly.

8 years ago

Anonymous

My teenaged DD doesn't care for jeans. She loves those jogger pants that have elastic in the waist and legs. She does wear her jeans in the winter; just not in the warmer months.

8 years ago

Anonymous

I bought my first pair of denim jeans with my own money when I was 17 back in 1973/1974. I think they were Wranglers. In college I wore slacks and really did not wear jeans. I think I started to wear them more often when they became popular in the early 1980s. I may have even owned a pair of Jordache - don't remember. All I remember was how expensive they were since I bought that first pair at 17.

My DD loves jeans, boot cut, straight leg, and dorm jeans. My DD can wear anything and make it look good.

8 years ago

El Cee

Veteran

I live in a college town. Most of the female students here have the winter uniform of sweater/sweatshirt over leggings/skinny jeans (tucked into boots). There is also a lot of athleisure wear sported on campus -- worn by both men and women. In the warmer months the campus is a sea of shorts, cargo pants, skater skirts and sundresses… hardly any jeans in sight. Denim is still worn regularly by the 30+ set around here… so perhaps jeans become a thing in the post-college years.

8 years ago

Jules

Veteran

Very interesting possibility! My older daughter (10) does wear jeans - they were pretty much required once she got out of her girly dresses and leggings stage. However, as of late she is wearing black leggings and track pants more frequently.
It definitely puts things in perspective. I do personally feel that leggings and track pants are "too casual" and shouldn't form the basis of a wardrobe. But generations past felt the same way about jeans. I wear jeans 90% of the time and consider it a big advantage of my job that denim is acceptable. So who would I be to tell the next generation they are too casual??? It's a pretty arbitrary distinction between denim and athleisure. One was for dirty work, one was for working out...

8 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Fascinating. A few more thoughts:

Your kids might wear jeans later in life - like my nephew. He wears them tight to show off his rugby physique.
As a Generation X-er, I quite like the idea that WE are the denim generation. Special!
Linder51 may have a point.
I see more teens wear jeans in Europe than in the US.
Jeans can be thought of as too dressy for kids today. It's the same philosophy that our parents had about denim back in the day.
I LOVE denim but do not like it to feel too soft and stretchy. Perhaps that's why retail went moggy changing denim to include a very soft and stretchy handle - so that kids and youths would wear more denim.

8 years ago

plonkee

Active Member

Are leggings going to be 'in' forever? I wore them a lot in as a teen in the very early 90s but then they fell out of fashion and I wore jeans (specifically bootcut) more.

8 years ago

Isabel

Veteran

Yes ! I see it. And it has been written about here on YLF. My daughter and all the girls at the junior high school and high school level wear yoga pants or skinny black pants. Some jeans but sporadically so. And the boys are mostly in track pants. It is really amazing to see.

8 years ago

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