Skinny jeans are making a comeback

The vilified linchpin of millennial and Y2K fashion – the skinny jean – might be on its way to a comeback.

Over the last few months, a range of skinny styles, including pants and jeans, have cropped up on fashion runways, influencer videos and Google search trends, indicating the divisive garment could soon be a closet staple again. 

Part of the buzz around skinny jeans undoubtedly came when TikTok star and Gen Z influencer Alix Earle debuted a pair of exclusive skinnies with denim brand Frame at the end of January, but the hype was already building before that. 

“For like the last six months, we started to hear rumblings of skinny jeans making a comeback,” said Janine Stichter, a retail analyst and managing director at BTIG. “If you look at Google Trends data for skinny jeans … it actually [spiked] the week of January 12 and it’s been picking up steam ever since.”

The week after Earle debuted her skinny jean partnership with Frame, searches for skinny jeans were up 50% year over year, she added, but still well off their 2009 peak.

That likely led to a spike in interest across retailers. Reformation told CNBC this week its customers have been searching for skinny jeans on its website more frequently lately.

American Eagle has also seen interest grow. 

“Certainly, there’s a lot of activity on skinny. I would like to say there’s a styling thing that’s happening, the high boot situation, and high boots and skinny jeans work, so that’s definitely taking hold,” Jen Foyle, American Eagle’s president and executive creative officer, told CNBC in an interview.

“You’re starting to see some of that movement but right now, it’s still relatively small, but we’re prepared to roll with it as we test it and scale,” she continued. “Our job is to be nimble, right?”

But like any fashion trend, the skinny jean resurgence was first spotted on the runways. Based on how the major designers are interpreting the look, it’ll appear different this time around. 

“On the runways, Prada, Isabel Morant, Tod’s, they all did very slim silhouette pants. They’re calling them skinny pants. The difference is that they’re doing them in plaid, not just solids. They’re doing them in these very tailored fabrics,” said Shawn Grain Carter, a fashion professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “We’re seeing some of the celebrities wear these skinny jeans, but they’re not nearly as conforming … it’s different from the jeggings that you saw [between 2009 and 2011]… It conforms to the leg, but it doesn’t have to necessarily hug it so tightly that all you see is an outline of a woman’s leg.”

The unofficial queen of denim – Levi Strauss CEO Michelle Gass – spotted the same trend on the runways and told CNBC she expects the controversial jeans to officially come back “sometime in the future.”

“While we don’t have a crystal ball, don’t get rid of your skinny jeans,” said Gass. “I do think when we see a bigger trend re-emerge, it’s going to look and feel…