Are Skinny Jeans Making a Comeback, or Is Alix Earle Just Influencing Us Again?
Skinny jeans—whether you love them or hate them—have been out of fashion for years. We swapped them for baggier styles, straight-leg, bootcut, cargo—you name it! But now, Alix Earle seems determined to bring them back with her recent FRAME collaboration, featuring two styles of skinny jeans called The Alix. As she and other influencers push the trend, I can’t help but wonder: Is this actually happening?
The Case for the Comeback
There’s no denying Alix Earle’s influence, whether you like her or not. I remember when she first started blowing up and had all of us putting on white eyeliner. But here’s the thing—when we put on white eyeliner, we were trying to look like her. With skinny jeans, it feels more like an influencer trend that most “normal” people aren’t really on board with yet. That being said, this FRAME collaboration makes sense with the current wave of nostalgia for the Tumblr era, King Kylie, 2016 makeup, and the entire Isabel Marant aesthetic. The collection features sleek, skinny silhouettes that bring back memories of Tumblr fashion—but this time, they’re being styled a little differently, particularly with high boots and the occasional heel.
Now, some might argue that skinny jeans were never really out. Maybe the wide-leg denim and tight-going-out-top era is just another phase that we’ll eventually call “cheugy” (or whatever word we’re using by then). Plus, plenty of people never stopped wearing them and have been waiting for their moment to come back. Functionally, skinny jeans make sense with the rise of knee-high and thigh-high boots—because, let’s be real, nothing is more annoying than stuffing baggy denim into a fitted boot or completely covering your cute boots with wide-leg pants. And when paired with heels, they can give off a sophisticated, streamlined look.
The Skeptic’s POV
On the other hand, aren’t we just styling skinny jeans in ways that make them not really look like skinny jeans? Tucking them into high boots almost defeats the purpose of the slim fit because the whole gag of the skinny jeans is at the bottom! The entire appeal—back in the 2010s, at least—was how they hugged the legs all the way down, creating that sleek, second-skin effect. But now, with influencers mostly styling them hidden inside knee-high boots, we’re barely even seeing the jeans themselves. Therefore, is it really possible to say that they are coming back when they’re not even being fully embraced by the people pushing them? If the only way to make them work is to cover them up or style them in a way that disguises their actual shape, are they really making a comeback? Or are we just dressing around them to make them seem more palatable?
That leads to an even bigger question: is this just another influencer-driven hype cycle? Because let’s be real—trends are moving faster than ever. So, are skinny jeans actually returning, or is this just a fleeting moment of nostalgia-fueled by a few viral posts? Just because a handful of influencers are wearing something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s about to take over the real world. If anything, we might just be seeing a micro-trend that exists more on TikTok than in our actual closets—especially considering that videos are already popping up of the FRAME collab jeans sitting in Goodwill bins. It’s crazy how fast these cycles are moving. We used to see trends at least make it into mainstream fashion before they fizzled out, but now, they’re barely making it off social media. It’s like we’re watching an entire trend cycle—from the hype phase to the “this is so over” phase—play out solely through TikTok videos, Instagram posts, and influencer styling. And the weirdest part? The majority of people never even participated in the trend to begin with. At this point, are trends even about what people are actually wearing anymore? Or are they just content? A few influencers wear something, TikTok reacts, discourse happens, and then the moment passes before it even has a chance to translate into real-life fashion. Maybe that’s what’s happening with skinny jeans. They aren’t making a real comeback—they’re just the latest main character in the never-ending trend cycle storyline we’re all watching from our phones.
Will They Make It to UF?
Okay, but let’s be real—are we actually going to see UF girls walking around in skinny jeans this semester? Probably not. If anything, this “comeback” might be more of a TikTok fantasy than an actual wardrobe shift. At the end of the day, a few influencers wearing skinny jeans doesn’t mean they’re making a full-blown comeback. This is likely just another micro-trend that never actually makes it past our For You pages. Trends can feel huge when they dominate social media discourse, but just because something is being talked about doesn’t mean it’s being worn. So, will some people at UF give skinny jeans a shot? Sure. But will we all be running back to them like it’s 2014 again? I doubt it.