Two million people are now searching for jeans on a weekly basis, according to data by product intelligence company Trendalytics.
The affirming figure is a relief for anyone in the denim industry compared to one year ago when joggers and nap dresses were all the rage. Concurrently, searches for items like leggings, sweatpants and joggers top out at 940,000 weekly.
The pivot back to jeans is a sign that consumers are saying goodbye to their comfort-focused quarantine uniform, but denim’s takeover is not just a response to a year-long lockdown. Echoing Levi Strauss & Co. president and CEO Chip Bergh, it’s also due in part to denim’s new cycle of loose fits and wider silhouettes. Jeans searches are up 33 percent since the same time last year, Trendalytics reported, and up 13 percent since 2019.
Searches for looser fits have more than doubled from 2019, and continue to grow. On average, 640,000 people are searching for baggy styles, up 74 percent since last year, with a heavy emphasis on mom jeans, Trendalytics reported.
Still, this doesn’t mean skinny jeans will be forever cast aside. Men and women alike remain hopeful that their favorite body-hugging silhouette will always be relevant, and the sentiment is underscored by Trendalytics’ findings that there are twice as many skinny products on the market as there are non-skinny. Brands such as Good American and AG continue to release skinny styles, showing their faith in the notorious bestseller.
Similarly, jeggings—the skinniest of the skinnies—are continuously evolving, thanks to new innovations that make them more comfortable than ever. NYDJ’s recent SpanSpring jeggings collection, for example, sold out within one week.
The silhouettes that are popular in 2021 will likely carry over to 2022, Trendalytics stated. Mom jeans, as well as their skinny counterpart, will continue to be top trends through the new year, followed by baggy jeans, flares and jeggings. Along with the skin-baring trends dominating post-pandemic fashion, bottoms that show some leg are considered styles to watch. Ankle jeans, flare cropped jeans and capri pants are all gaining traction as well.
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Color denim is also having a moment as consumers seek simple yet impactful ways to update their closets. Trendalytics identified purple as the No. 1 color denim to watch, second only to black jeans, which see 100,000 weekly searches, up slightly since 2019. Purple accounts for 42 percent of colored denim searches, followed by green and pink at 15 percent, red at 14 percent, yellow at 6 percent and orange at 5 percent.
The high demand for jeans is opening up new opportunities for both fashion and pure denim players. After Zara’s colorful wide-leg jeans went viral on TikTok, “Zara jeans” garnered 49,000 weekly searches, up 35 percent from last year, causing the fast-fashion retailer to become the top denim brand in terms of search growth since 2020.
Wrangler, which is benefiting from the Western wear revival, Old Navy, and JNCO, the polarizing ’90s streetwear staple, followed closely behind.
Still, Levi’s remains sovereign overall, with more than 1.3 million average weekly searches. The company saw net revenues for Q2 2021 jump 156 percent to $1.28 billion, driving execs to project that the second half of fiscal 2021 will be higher than they were in 2019, thanks to the growing demand for denim, as well as the company’s quick thinking during the pandemic.