What Wide-Leg Jeans Is Everyone Wearing These Days?
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As with any pair ofjeans— be theyhigh-waisted,low-waisted, or evendark-washed— what constitutes the “perfect” wide-leg might mean something different for everyone. More than any other style of jeans (besides maybe thebarrel-leg), you’ll want to pay attention to the proportion of the silhouette. Some wide-legs are too wide for me, while others might as well be a straight-leg. For this guide to wide-leg jeans, I tried to find something for everyone by asking over a dozen sources about their favorites. That includes a pair that makes your “butt look like it’s being lifted with two tiny hands below each cheek” and another pair to wear when you’re looking to “comfort-maxx.” Plus, I added in a few jeans that have appeared on our site before (including from the recently updated list ofjeans our editors buy themselves). If you want more of our jeans coverage, check out our guides to thebest jeans under $150and59 tasteful people on the best jeans they own.
Under$150
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Carrie Carrollo, a creative strategist, is now “totalGapconvert” — in no small part thanks to the brand’s high-rise Stride wide-leg jeans. The “idealhigh-waistedjeans,” they’re “comfortable enough to wear all day, with a bit of stretch and give.” Compared to her other favorite Gap jeans, theLow Rise ’90s Loose jeans, the wide-legs are a little roomier (but both “are on the looser side”). Carrollo bought her original pairs, in medium-blue and black washes, over two years ago. Since then, she’s gottenanothermedium-blue wash in a size down, finding that Gap tends to run slightly bigger than other mall brands. (You might consider sizing down as she did, with the jeans being a blend of 99 percent cotton and one percent elastane in nearly every wash.) Otherwise, “they’ve worn great and I wash them often (and eventhrow them in the dryer sometimes),” she says.
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J.Crew Slim-Wide Jean
I can’t stop talking about J.Crew’s Slim-Wide jeans, which are theonly jeans I haven’t returned in nearly a year. They are everything I want my jeans to be: butt-hugging and thigh-skimming without being waist-gapping. Anyone who hasn’t yet tried on a good wide-leg should try them. It’s less of aWIDE-LEGand more of awide-leg.
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This is a version ofMadewell’s Perfect Vintage style that astylist has recommended to over 150 clients. It’s among the most size-inclusive wide-legs I heard about, available in Madewell’s standard range of sizes 23 to 33 and plus sizes 14W to 28W, in addition to different inseams (the regular 27 inches, short 25 inches, and tall 30 inches). Take your pick between washes, likeVintage CanvasandMidnight Waters(which, admittedly, sounds like a Fleetwood Mac song). But the faded light-blue washArchitectural Digestshopping editorAudrey Leehas — calledRaebrook— is “textbook example of what you’d expect from an authentic pair of vintage jeans — minus the work of running the denim through the wash for 20 years.” Each has Madewell’s “comfort stretch” (or one percent elastane), and that “touch of elastane” makes them all the more comfortable. Lee wears the jeans on “occasions when I’m looking to comfort-maxx.”
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Madewell’s Low-Slung Baggy jean is not an entirely unique style — Gap has theLow Slung Extra Baggy jeans, for example. But Lee hadn’t been able to find one that didn’t make her look like she’s “drowning in material” until she tried Madewell’s. “The hem on these just misses the floor,” which she thinks is right for anything that’s low-rise and baggier.
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In aninstallment ofSecret Strategist,Ebony L. Haynes,David Zwirner’s global head of curatorial projects, mentioned having several pairs of theseBanana Republicjeans. “I can’t bring myself to spend $200 on a T-shirt,” Haynes says. “My jeans are similar: I like the idea of designer jeans, or jeans that would probably fit me better, but instead, one of my favorite pairs of jeans I bought off Instagram from a Banana Republic ad.” They’re now her “go-to wide-legs.”
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“These are truly the most flattering jeans in aSisterhood of the Traveling Pantssense,” according to authorEliza Dumais. Quite literally: Her friends who normally wear a 26 or 27 (she has the size 25) borrow them and get a “slightly tighter fit.” Nearly everyone repeats some form of “our bodies are so different, I can’t believe these look so good on both of us” when trying them on. “They make everyone’s butt look amazing,” she adds. “I feel like there’s some mathematical wisdom out there re: pocket sizing, and something about these pockets seems to flatter without looking disproportionate.” And they’re more forgiving than vintage Levi’s (even pre-loved, they can “be incredibly stiff,” she admits). “I wouldn’t choose to go for a jog in denim, but I honestly think, in these, it would be feasible,” she says.
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Anne Whiting, a writer and communications strategist, previously told me about Spanx’s high-rise wide-leg jeans in our guide tothe best jeans under $150. They don’t come with a zipper or front pockets, but “sleekness comes at its cost,” she says. “I’d rather have smooth lines and just use the square back pocket.” She adds, “I think there’s something about the nameSpanxthat placebo invokes that these are supporting-contouring.” But they hide her midsection and accentuate her figure exactly the way she wants jeans to.
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Levi’s 318 Shaping Wide Legs are the jeans that got producerMbiye Kasongaback into denim. “Until I bought these jeans, I only had one pair of denim that I would wear maybe once a month,” she said in our “59 Tasteful People on the Best Jeans They Own” guide. The jeans are made from 97 percent cotton and 3 percent elastane, and, as Kasonga notes, “They’re categorized as ‘shaping’ jeans, so they have more give.” The amount of stretch in them does mean they have a slight waist gap on her curvier figure, but that’s “not prohibitive to wearing them,” she says.
Under$300
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Jeans shopping doesn’t always come easy for writerAbena Anim-Somuah, who compares finding the right jeans to “solving a Rubik’s cube.” She describes herself as “slightly curvy” atsix feet tall. Jeans are frequently either “too short, don’t hug my hips right, or the style isn’t something that I find flattering.” But not Sézane’s Wide Leg trousers. They reach her ankles and “sit perfectly on my hips while making my curves look great,” she says. In fact, she doesn’t even need to wear abeltwith them.
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ConsultantAnja Tyson“can never find wide-legs to wear with a low heel” at five-ten. Not only are Sézane’s New 70’s trousers long enough for her, they “don’t float above the ground.” It’s a slimmer, high-waisted, wide-leg silhouette (which reminds her ofJacqueline Kennedy Onassis). “I will say I have a smaller waist and bigger hips, and I need to get the waist taken in a little bit because it’s cut generously on top,” Tyson says. But she doesn’t mind: “It’s much harder to find a more structured wide-leg jean” as they are. “It’s a nice medium-weight denim with a good body to it so they look really nice so far,” she adds.
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Slvrlake Mica
Slvrlake’s Mica jeans were perfect off the rack forEmma Chozick, founder of the creative consultancygr8 collab. She describes them as “sitting right below my belly button, fitted at the top, with a wide leg at the bottom [that wasn’t] flared, and the cherry on top: flattering from the back.” Plus, theyjustbrush the floor (“jeans can sometimes be short on me in a way that doesn’t look purposeful,” she says). Beyond fitting her body in all the right places, the jeans have held up between washes. “They’ve kept their fit,” she says. “They hold their shape, which I think is what makes them flattering.” (Because they are a tad long, “they’ve started to fray on the bottom when they drag,” but she admittedly likes that.) Just recently, she packed them for a one-week trip to Mexico City in February that turned into a two-week trip followed byanothertwo weeks in Los Angeles. “Needless to say they got a lot of airtime over the month of February and have continued to since, becoming my favorite everyday jean,” she says.
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“To me, these are a crossbetween a barrel- and a wide-leg,” saysLove and Other Rugs’sLily Sullivan. “And they would absolutely make any barrel skeptics reconsider.” Sullivan has even been wearing them more than her B Sides (theLassohas what the brand calls a “kinked-leg shape”). “It’s a hot jean that goes very day to night,” she adds. Be sure to size down to get something more close fitting (that’s what she did).
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Citizen of Humanity’s Aylasare the only jeans our updates coordinatorNajwa Jamalwears nearly every day of the week. “I prefer my denim to be rigid with a button fly, which these have, so that over time, the pair better molds to your body,” she explains. “The Aylas have done so wonderfully while still maintaining their shape and ability to look good with nearly everything in my closet.” Maybe that’s thanks to the “slightly too-long inseam” and “baggy but not barrel wide-leg” — or just the mid-rise she can sling lower. “Be warned: These jeans run large, and I’d definitely recommend sizing down one or two sizes depending on your desired fit,” she says. In her white Aylas, she sized down to a 25, while she took a 26 in a blue wash (“for reference: I’m usually a solid 2/4/27”).
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“I used to be obsessed with 100 percent cotton denim that was borderline uncomfortable,” saysVictoria Filippini, a content creator and writer of the newsletterTaking Notes. “But the older I get, the more I value comfort.” Toast’s Annie jeans, which are 98 percent cotton and 2 percent elastane, have “just enough stretch.” Filippini can sit, eat, and ride her bike (or do “all the important things”) in them. “I wish I was one of those people that tracked their outfits so I could give you a true cost per wear, but I’ve easily worn them 100 times in the year I’ve had them,” she says. Toast might brand them as a straight-leg, but “they’re definitely wider than a classic straight-leg would be, and akin to a ’70s sailor jean.” To Filippini, they “feel somewhere between a trouser and a jean” for their side buttons and patch pockets. Especially for the “inky indigo wash” that hasn’t faded in the face of “many, many washes.”
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AG Adria Jean
“Perhaps I’m too accustomed to my ‘standing only’ jeans,” says artistMelly Wirtes. But AG’s Adria Jean “are infinitely more comfortable in comparison,” Wirtes says, adding that the pair makes it easy to sit and move. They’re also miraculously full-length on Wirties, who’s six-two. “I used to literally take my jeans to a tailor and have them add additional inches in a contrasting denim to make it look like an intentional design choice (but really, I just needed a longer inseam),” she says. These “have the same two-tone effect, and I think they’re really cool.”
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I know what you’re thinking, but according toKelsey Keith, the creative director of MillerKnoll, DL1961’s Taylor jeans “aren’t actually barrel-y; more wide-leg.” They have the “perfect amount of roominess without going baggy,” either. “I’m not much of a blue-jeans person, but these read more ‘pants’ to me because of their shape,” she adds. The off-white denim helps too. “It looks fine when it’s a little dirty and somehow goes with everything,” she says. She’s had her pair for a year, wearing them through the four seasons: “I do live in California, but I travel a lot and have taken them with me in various climates: New York City, Michigan, Tennessee.”
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The H.D. jeans by Needles are a wider wide-leg, admittedly. WhenTanya Bush, a writer, baker, andCake Zineco-editor, wears hers, “sometimes people think they are a skirt and marvel when I show them the architecture.” (The model photos at Ssense are “very helpful” to get a sense of their proportions.) They have a drawstring at the waistband and pockets that “can accommodate a passport orwater bottlequite comfortably.” Just note that the bottom “can fold on itself a bit,” but it’s nothing that asteamercan’t fix.
Over$300
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Kate Snyder, the brand-marketing manager at Loeffler Randall, calls Still Here’s Cool jeans a “sartorial unicorn,” as in, “amenable to my other clothes as it is distinct.” Snyder actually went to Still Here on her lunch break the day the jeans launched — and in the wake of the breakup, she was willing to spend way more on a single pair of jeans “than I am when I’m not feeling sorry for myself.” But, three years later, she still feels the purchase was worth it. Instead of a waistband, the jeans have a button-fly and drawstring toggle. But the fit is “immaculate,” with a straighter wide-leg and a relaxed low-rise. “They hug my hips but never threaten to reveal the top of my butt crack,” Snyder says. Plus, they make her “butt look like it’s being lifted with two tiny hands below each cheek.”
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Jeanerica Kyoto
Sofia Corbo, the community manager at Jenny Bird (andSofissimion Substack), originally told me about her Jeanerica’s Kyoto in our guide to thebest corduroy pants. But she bought the denim version first. “The rise in the denim is a little bit more forgiving than in the corduroy, since denim gives a little,” she says. Branded as having a “low waist,” the jeans sit a few inches under her belly button. “So it’s the perfect middle ground for those experimenting with a lower waist, especially if you’re particularly short-waisted like myself,” she adds.
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Friends influencedZoë Sessums, writer of the newsletterArchive of Everything,to get herself a pair of B Sides last year. TheQuinnwas her first pair: “I wore the jeans on an international flight to Paris and felt like Jane Birkin strolling around the city.” Then, a month later, came the Lasso. If Sessums had to choose between them, it would be the Lasso over the Quinn. “The jeans just make everything I wear look better — a tightT-shirt, a slouchysweater, atank top, asweatshirt— they do no wrong,” she says. “I’m not afraid to wear them to a nice dinner or on a mountainside hike.” But she went a size up in both: “This was both for maximizing comfort and accepting my constantly fluctuating body.” The shorter Lasso works better on her five-four frame, while she had to get the Quinn hemmed. Be mindful that the Lassos, which are also a favorite of our senior writerLauren Ro(who likes their “vintage weight”) have a barrel-er wide-leg.
[Editor’s note: Sessums’s exactSlim Lasso jeansare sold out now, but we linked to a version of the Lasso jeans available at Net-a-Porter.]
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