Hold on to your pants, skinny jeans are on the way out. Amy Parsons-King struggles to find a positive in the new "mum''-style jeans.
I knew this day would come, with the cyclical nature of the fashion industry, it was inevitable. Brace yourselves ... the skinny jean is on its way out!
After around a decade as the leading legwear trend, the much-loved slim silhouette the skinny jean offered has been replaced by a less flattering style, often referred to as the "mum'' jean.
No doubt you are freaking out at this point as you've acquired a pair of skinnies in every imaginable wash and rip combo, and you're reluctant to give up the blissful comfort the stretchy skinny offers.
Don't worry, all is not lost for those of us living at the bottom of the earth, explains Slick Willy's owner Amy Henderson.
"I first noticed this trend happening nearly a year ago in the North Island, with lots of the sales reps we deal with rolling the Levi's vintage 501 look. The style has slowly made its way down here, but to be honest a skinny or boyfriend jean is still our biggest seller.''
If you were a child of the late 1980s/early '90s you will undoubtedly recall your mother wearing high-waisted, straight-leg, ankle-cropped, light stone-wash jeans.
You may also remember how difficult she found it to get into these rigid jeans and watched in dismay as she lay on her bed huffing and puffing, struggling to get the top button done up.
If you didn't understand then why she went to so much effort in the quest to look cool, you will now when you try to negotiate your own body into a pair of these ultra-stiff jeans.
Keen to embrace this trend?
I recommend quickly grabbing your mum's old pair before she rekindles her love affair with what could potentially be one of the most unflattering style of jeans that ever existed. Or you could try your local op-shop where you'll probably find a pair for less than the price of a soy flat white.
If secondhand isn't your thing and you want to break in your own pair, Levi's continues to make its original 501 and 505 styles, while Lee, Wrangler, A-Brand, Vanishing Elephant, Vetements and Wynn Hamlyn are doing cool versions too.
Overall, you may get the impression I'm down on the "mum'' jean.
I'm not hating the trend completely, as they do have one redeeming feature: they make your butt look like the peach emoticon.
