Why everyone is about to be wearing horseshoe jeans

For more than a decade, the skinny jean reigned supreme.

The skin-tight, legging-like style first emerged in the 1970s in glam rock bands, and by the 2010s, the jeans had hit the mainstream, with everyone from high schoolers to suburban moms wearing them. But since the pandemic, skinny jean’s popularity has been waning. Today, the only people wearing skinny jeans are toddlers and elder millennials.

Every decade or so, our preference for jeans changes. This latest evolution of denim isn’t about the straight, or boot-cut, or bell-bottom jeans of the past. Instead, we’re getting a new and kookier aesthetic. It’s tight-fitting at the waist, then it dramatically balloons at the knees before tapering off at the ankle. The look is so new, it doesn’t even have a fixed name yet. It’s been described as the barrel, horseshoe, or tapered jean.

How did the horseshoe edge out the more traditional styles to become the style of the summer? Is it just a passing trend or does it have staying power? And what exactly do you wear with such a dramatic silhouette?

How trends change

Denim designers can smell change on the horizon. Just ask Marianne McDonald, the creative director of the luxury label Citizens of Humanity, which also owns Agolde and Goldsign. McDonald been designing jeans since 2005, when she was design director of women’s denim at Gap. She says that denim cycles tend to last about a decade. “Every ten to fifteen years, there’s a dramatic shift,” she says. “When you look at vintage denim, you see the shift between slim and wide.”

In 2021, McDonald felt another major transition was afoot. The pandemic had caused the plate tectonics of the fashion world to shift. People had gotten used to looser, more comfortable clothing during in lockdown. This led them away from tight-fitting garments, and towards wider fits. But as COVID-19 receded, people wanted to put the pandemic years behind them and enter a new era. “There was this sense that people wanted something new and different,” McDonald says. “Our current moment hearkens back to the 1960s, which were also a time of profound change.”

As McDonald began sketching out new designs, she gravitated toward the dramatic horseshoe silhouette. Citizens of Humanity has always leaned toward rounded shapes that create a kind of bow-legged look. It’s what sets the brand apart and creates a chic, editorial look. The horseshoe took it to the next level. “We like to play with shapes, emblematic of balloons and curves,” she says. “This was just a more dramatic version of that.”

But Citizens of Humanity wasn’t alone in propelling this change. As with many trends, several designers had a similar idea at the same time. Over at Everlane, chief creative officer Mathilde Mader realized customers were ready for something new. And a wildly different denim style could transform someone’s entire wardrobe. “There was this sense after the pandemic that we needed to keep moving forward,” she says. “Having a wardrobe refresh—something as simple as a new denim leg—can give you this feeling.”

Mader says that changing a denim silhouette forces people to reevaluate everything else they are wearing. The horseshoe silhouette requires different proportions on top. While a skinny jean works well with an oversized or boxy top, or chunky shoes, the opposite is true with the horseshoe. You want to wear a tight-fitting top and flat shoes. “Everything is intricately connected,” she says. “These jeans came about when everyone was interested in showing off their $600 sneakers and leather ballet flats.”

Horseshoe is on the rise

For it’s Fall/Winter 2023 show, Alaïa sent a model down the runway in a pair of jeans with an a trouser leg that ballooned cartoonishly. (The $1,270 jeans sold out.) By September of that year, the number of searches for “barrel jeans” spiked by 150% according to fashion data site Lyst.

Soon, other brands started creating their own versions, although they opted for a somewhat less exaggerated swell at the knees. Design forward brands like Frame and Mother released their own versions. Then, brands like Zara and Free People got on board, with more affordable pairs. At Everlane, Mader designed the “curve jean” that creates a bow-leg and tapers at the ankle. Launched in January 2024, the jean sold out quickly. Everlane is quickly trying to restock.

Some fashion-forward early adopters—mostly young people—are quickly coming around to the horseshoe jean. But the silhouette still looks unusual when you see it in the wild. Many people feel attached to their skinny jeans, or an evolved version of them, which has led to increased interest in safer styles like wide leg and boot cut. But this is how it goes with trends. “With any sort of seismic shift, people’s first reaction to the style is, ‘I’m not young enough’ or ‘I don’t have the body type for it,’” McDonald says. “But people’s eyes adjust. Then there’s a tipping point when the aesthetic becomes mainstream.”

McDonald believes this will happen with the horseshoe jean as well. And one day, it will be emblematic of our moment in history, much like the bell bottom epitomized the ‘60s and the skinny jean epitomized the 2010s. For now, we’re still in that rare moment when a new silhouette feels exciting. “It’s always exhilarating to be in a moment when old ideas are being challenged, and new ideas are springing up,” she says. “That’s true in fashion as well.”