Slim-fitting stretchy jeans are a favorite among celebrities and models; find out how to buy flattering skinny jeans and how you can wear them with style.
The 1980s are making a comeback with the recent resurrection of skinny jeans. You may be cringing right now if you remember the horrific bubblegum jeans of one of the tackiest decades of fashion, but don't worry, this season's incarnation of the skinny jean is much more tasteful.
Styles of Skinny Jeans:
- Straight Jeans: The skinny-jean-shy can ease into the trend with the widely appealing and most universally flattering cigarette or straight leg cut. This slim style closely grazes your curves without clinging to them as much as other skinny cuts.
- Skinny Jeans: These are the middle-of-the-road: stretchy, tapered (ankle-hugging) skinny jeans.
- Super-Skinny Jeans: Super-skinny jeans have the highest percentage of stretch fiber and deliver a sprayed-on look (without the ribs of the 1980s bubble-gum jeans).
What to Wear with Skinny Jeans
In an interview with ElleCanada.com, Holt Renfrew's Erica Yeu advises that a long, lean top that hits at hip level (or below) is the perfect top for skinny jeans. She says that an empire waist top that billows out over the hips flatters wider hips and an ample bottom. For boyish silhouettes, Yeu suggests wearing skinny jeans with leaner, body-skimming jersey tops.
Skinny Jean Buying Tips
- The key to finding the perfect pair of jeans is in the fitting room, and this is even more true for skinny jeans. You’ve got to try on every pair of skinny jeans you can get your hands on until you find the right fit.
- Buy dark washes – indigo, dark grey or black – to create a lean silhouette and minimize your wider parts.
How to Wear Skinny Jeans
There are essentially four ways to successfully wear the skinny jean trend:
1. Skinny Jeans Tucked Into Boots
Flare, bootleg and wide legged jean styles are a total pain to tuck into boots: they bunch, wrinkle, and can even make it impossible to zip up the boots themselves. That's why the typical mode of wearing skinny jeans is tucked into high boots.
Not only does this style allow you to show off your hot, fashionable boots, it's also the most flattering way to wear the skinny jean. The visual mass of the boots help balance out the hips and bottom, making the skinny jean becoming on even curvy figures.
2. Skinny Jeans with High Heels
The second way to wear skinny jeans is with stiletto high heels. When worn with pointy toe, peep toe or even strappy high heels the effect can be very slimming by creating the illusion of longer legs. This is a fabulous look for all women, but especially for hippier women, and those with shorter legs. To play up your curves, wear this style with a slim-fitting shirt or trendy boyfriend blazer.
3. Rolled-Up Slim Jeans
You can get creative with skinny jeans by rolling them up six to eight inches and wearing them over high boots, ankle boots, or even stilettos.This is a significantly more casual way to sport the skinny jean, and it works even for those who shy away from slim-fitting denim.
4. Skinny Jeans with Flats
There is another way to wear designer skinny jeans, but it's difficult to pull off, as it exaggerates the hips and butt, and can make even slender women look heavy. This infamous style is, of course, the skinny jean worn with flat shoes. A word of warning: skinny jeans should never be worn with sneakers.
