Wide-leg Jeans Are A True Winter Style Saviour – These Are The Best To Buy Now

Conventional wisdom might dictate that OTT, slouchy, jeans ought to be reserved for the dryer months, when their hems don't slurp up the puddles lining the floor. But, if there's one thing we collectively deserve after what has been a particularly topsy-turvy year, it's the power of a wide-leg jean. And so here we are. Talking about wide-leg jeans with all the verve that they deserve, even if they can be something of a hazard during the wet and drizzly winter months.

The humble wide-legged jean appears to have hit something of a style nerve, too. Over the past twelve months, according to Google Trends, searches for wide-leg jeans have spiked by 140% with high street stalwarts, & Other Stories, Marks & Spencer and Hush, among the most popular labels to buy them from. On TikTok, low-slung, hip-flashing wide-leg jeans have been en vogue for much of the past six months, with people increasingly wearing theirs with shrunken T-shirts and jumpers and larger-than-life loafers.

‘Wide-leg jeans are great because they look instantaneously relaxed yet ultra sophisticated,’ Marianne McDonald, Creative Director of Citizens of Humanity, tells ELLE UK. ‘There’s a versatility to them that the public has really responded to, and it makes sense - I love that idea of wearing something that feels cool and vintage, but really modern at the same time.’

Denim purveyor, Agolde’s best-sellers this season have been its wide-legged Low Slung Baggy and Harper silhouettes. According to the brand’s Vice President, Jordan Fink, Agolde’s wide-legged offerings are so successful that all of its slouchy silhouettes will be carried over into next season. While Matches Fashion has invested 79% more in its wide-legged jean category for 2024, with its total investment in the denim category up by 10% overall.

Larger-than-life, pavement-sweeping jeans began their journey back to the forefront of desire in Copenhagen, where the Great Danes rule supreme in their stylistic endorsements. Skall Studio’s AW23 collection paired soupy wide-leg jeans with equally slouchy shirts and blazers, while at Ganni, wide-leg jeans hissed under snakeskin outerwear. As is often the case, where the Copenhagen style set goes, the rest of the fashion world soon follows. A couple of weeks later, inky wide-legged jeans were paired with sharp and sweet turquoise knits at Loewe’s AW23 show, while Gucci and Bottega Veneta both let their denim do the talking by dressing them with a crisp button-down and white tank top respectively.

‘This year we’ve seen a shift towards more oversized and wide-leg silhouettes,’ Net-a-Porter's Market Director, Libby Page, tells ELLE UK. ‘Street style has embraced the baggy, low-slung styles by adding a more androgynous touch to give those off-duty-model vibes, taking particular inspiration from Burberry and Alaia’s SS23 denim styles on the runway this year with XXL-oversized styling and double denim galore.’

As for how to wear them, the beauty of the wide-leg jean is that it’s chameleonic. This is an example of denim that defies styling advice. Agolde’s Creative Director, Karen Phelps, wears hers with oversized shirts and T-shirt combinations for casual days and with tight-fitting layers for more elevated occasions. Team ELLE UK favours wearing theirs with kitten heeled boots and OTT slouchy knits for wintertime and with baggy T-shirts and slingbacks once the sun makes a reappearance. However you choose to style yours; these are the wide-leg jeans to make a beeline for now.