It’s only been a year since TikTok declared that side parts, laughing emojis, and, most significantly, skinny jeans were over. And yet, the rumblings around fashion this week tell a very different story. With Prada, Tory Burch, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Sportmax all featuring fitted bottoms in their S/S 23 collections, it appears that rather than “out,” skinny pants and trousers are in contrast, gearing up to become spring’s biggest and most controversial trend. So much for the 20-year trend cycle.
Here’s what happened: Thanks to social media and fast fashion turning up the speed on everything style-related, the patterns we used to trust for trend prediction are now defunct—useless. No longer do trends have 10 or 20 years at their prime. Maybe, depending on how a few TikToks go, they have one or two at best. So, after having invested heavily in baggier, slouchy pants for a few years now, we were bound to see the opposite shape rise up to take their place. It’s also worth noting that skinny pants and jeans have been absent from the runways and street style circulation for years now, long before Gen Z condemned them in 2021. So really, with the cycle for trends sped up so significantly, we should have foreseen the body-hugging bottoms’ return to fashion’s good graces.
Of course, with Miuccia Prada, Raf Simons, and Maximilian Davis (whose debut Ferragamo collection debuted last week) in charge of designing the once-hated silhouette’s rebrand, the resulting skinny pants were always going to be good. So maybe don’t judge the style before you see them on the runways. I’m guessing you’ll feel just as surprisingly excited as I was. Scroll down to find out.
