American women are ditching skinny jeans after a decades-long love affair

• American women are giving up skinny jeans for looser-fitting styles.
• Sales of straight-legged jeans surpassed skinny in the US in 2021, according to figures from NPD.

American women are ditching skinny jeans after a decades-long love affair.

Tight-fitting denim pants have been a wardrobe staple for years, but new sales data indicates their moment in the sun has passed.

Straight-leg became the best-selling jeans fit in 2021, accounting for one-third, or $3.3 billion, of the women's jeans market in the US, according to data from NPD Group.

Skinny jeans was the only the style that saw a decline in revenue in 2021, even though they continued to be the most popular fit among young shoppers, NPD said.

NPD apparel analyst Maria Rugolo said the shift was likely caused by customers gravitating to more comfortable denim styles towards the end of the pandemic. Fortunately, retailers were on the mark in rolling out new styles and fits to suit these changing consumer tastes, she said.

For years, fashion editors have called the end of the skinny jeans fashion cycle – and time and time again they've been proven wrong. In the past few years, however, tastes have started to shift, and leading denim wear brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle have noted that consumers are beginning to favor more loose-fitting styles.

Levi's CEO Chip Burgh echoed this in a call with investors at the start of 2021. Burgh said sales of a new loose-fit line of jeans for men and women were "off to a very, very fast start" and the trend was here to stay.

Still, he doesn't think we've completely closed the door on the skinnier silhouette. "I don't think skinny are ever going away on the women's side of the business," he said.