Low-Rise Jeans Are Coming Back—and That's OK

Last year ended with a type of fashion revelation that suited a year oft compared to a raging garbage fire: Low-rise jeans are coming back.

The fault was our own, as a people. I mean, yes, in November, Jennifer Lopez was seen wearing a pair of wide-leg thong pants, first spotted on the Natasha Zinko runway in February. But even before that, brands like Kith Sport, Baja East, Fenty Puma by Rihanna, and Tom Ford had used their spring 2018 collections to reintroduce the style (“style”) most of us left in both the past and our nightmares. Alas, the momentum kept building: Kirk Miller of Linder NYC used both the spring 2018 and spring 2019 runways to pair low-rise bottoms with visible bikini bottoms or undergarments.

In December, Miller told The Cut that he felt the look would likely be popular with those who embrace wearable irony. And that makes sense: For years we’ve romanticized all aspects of '90s style, so the trash-tastic first decade of the 200s are naturally what's next. It didn't take long for this trend (“trend”) to spread beyond the runways, with brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, Current/Elliott, and AMO as well as influencers like the Hadid sisters letting low-rise jeans into their hearts (Hadid sisters) and upcoming collections (Abercrombie & Fitch, Current/Elliott, and AMO.)

This was a horrifying development for those of us who lived through the aughts of the 2000s.

My own teens and early twenties were defined by pants inspired by 2003 Britney or Stripped-Era Christina. I looked to Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Mischa Barton as fashion gods. I lived for nights out where I could pair distressed low-rise denim with pointy-toe kitten heels and belts that looked like neckties. (FASHION!)

Of course, as the dawn of the 2010s approached, I began to grow out of the style that defined part of my youth, as one tends to do. I welcomed higher rises and skinny-legged jeans with open arms, and vowed never to wear anything that required me to put real thought into what underwear I was wearing (outside of whether it was comfortable and I liked it). In short, I graduated to adulthood.

What's shocking about the low-rise comeback is that we’re shocked at all. As the cliché goes, everything old is new again. The cyclical nature of trends dictates that at some point, we’ll come face-to-face with the worst parts of our pasts, or at least the styles some of us (hi) equate most with being young, foolish, and hopelessly unaware that just because a type of pants exists doesn’t mean you have to wear it.

But recognizing that trends are cyclical doesn’t make the resurrection of one any easier. Graduating to adulthood meant that we got to leave low-rise jeans in our youths, nestled among our comically tiny purses and Von Dutch hats. It feels too soon to be reminded of who we used to be—or for our earnest attempts at Fashion™ to be worn today as irony.