Julia Fox is now adding “fashion designer” to her list of viral fame credits. The “Uncut Gems” star who recently ended a whirlwind romance with rapper and fashion mogul Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and went viral after declaring she was “Josh Safdie’s muse” for the film has solidified her standing in the denim world with blue blood-focused content.
Over the weekend, Fox shared a photo of her latest denim-on-denim look, which featured light-wash straight-leg jeans with a frayed waist and an upcycled denim bandeau top, a not-so-subtle nod to the all-denim look she wore to the Kenzo Fall-Winter 2022/2023 fashion show at Paris Fashion Week with then-boyfriend Ye. Alexander Wang denim knee-high boots and a tote bag refashioned from a pair of matching jeans rounded out the look.
Soon after posting the photo to her 1.2 million Instagram followers over the weekend, the actress followed up with a video tutorial showing DIY aficionados how to achieve the same look using an old pair of high-waisted jeans. After marking three spots in the front and one in the back with a highlighter, Fox cut off the jeans’ waistband to create an ultra-low-rise jean. Like a true upcycling-minded denim designer, the model saved the scraps to fashion a bandeau top, though she noted that she didn’t document that process because she “truly didn’t think it was gonna work.” In the post’s caption, Fox noted her obsession with the material, stating, “now that latex is kinda played out, denim, you’re all I have left.”
Fox isn’t alone in her denim appreciation. The global denim jeans market is projected to spike to $76.1 billion by 2026, up from $57.3 billion in 2020, according to a recent report from forecasting firm Research and Markets. Specifically, loose denim and low-rise jeans—two boxes Fox checked off in her latest post—are coming back to the forefront. According to fashion shopping platform Lyst, searches for low-rise jeans jumped 91 percent last year, with baggy and flared fits among the most popular styles.
The market for DIY fashion has grown in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, when shopping slowed and individuals who would normally spend time perusing new clothing racks instead shifted their sights to what currently lived inside of their closets. That, coupled with a cycle of entirely new denim fits, is fueling consumers’ drive to redesign their existing denim. In a report featuring data from 35,000 fashion influencers from around the world, influencer marketing technology platform Traackr found that influencer posts about DIY denim increased by 125 percent between January and April 2020, when the pandemic first began. Since then, DIY denim content has been a mainstay in denim brand marketing content, with major labels like Levi’s regularly posting TikTok and Instagram content featuring different ways to upcycle old jeans.
Just two days prior to her denim tutorial, Fox shared makeup tips for achieving a bold smoky eye similar to the one she wore during Paris Fashion Week. The self-proclaimed “fox eye” look aligns with today’s beauty trends marked by loud eye shadow and “Euphoria”-inspired glam.
Fox has become a trendsetter in the fashion world, with fans copying her denim-drenched style after Paris Fashion Week. Lyst reported that searches for “double-denim” shot up 31 percent week-on-week following the public display.
Meanwhile, the model’s provocative former flame, Ye, was recently banned from performing at the Grammy Awards and temporarily kicked off Instagram after verbally harassing his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, her boyfriend and “Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson, and comedian Trevor Noah. The multi-hyphenated artist launched the highly anticipated Yeezy Gap venture in June 2020, which has seen massive success ever since. In February, Ye worked with Balenciaga creative director Demna to design the first Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga products.