Slim-fit pants

Skinny denim jeans

Slim-fit pants or skinny jeans have a snug fit through the legs and end in a small leg opening. (This type of pants is known as "trousers" in the UK, to be distinguished from undergarments.) Other names for this style include carrot leg pants, cigarette pants, drainpipes, peg leg pants, pencil pants, skinny pants, slimjims, tapered pants, or ice-cream cone pants. Skinny jeans taper completely at the bottom of the leg, whereas drainpipe jeans are skinny but then the lower leg is straight instead of tapering and so they are often slightly baggier at the bottom of the leg than skinny jeans. In some styles, zippers are needed at the bottom of the leg to facilitate pulling them over the feet. Stretch denim, with anywhere from 2% to 4% spandex, may be used to allow jeans to have a super-slim fit. Skinny jeans are worn by men and women.

History

The 1950s

Elvis Presley wearing drainpipe jeans. In the 50s the waist was higher than on modern skinny jeans

The style of pants originated in the 1950s, with popular stars such as Roy Rogers, Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Zorro and Gene Autry, Marilyn Monroe, and Sandra Dee wearing their pants very slim to the ankle. Tapered jeans became most notable with country music stars and with the birth of rock and roll in the 1950s, when Elvis Presley donned slim-fitting jeans and shocked the country. Drainpipe jeans and rock 'n' roll were inextricably linked to create the bad boy image that remains today. In the early 1960s they were worn by numerous rock bands, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

The 1970s

In the early 70s Glam rock and rockabilly bands reviving the Teddy Boy look popularised drainpipe jeans in contrast to the flared trousers worn by hippies. Red tartan drainpipe jeans (as they were then called) were popular in the punk subculture of the late 1970s, worn by many bands and scene leaders such as The Clash, Ramones, The Sex Pistols and were sold by the revolutionary shop Sex, run by Vivienne Westwood. The tight fit trousers were often customised with bondage-style zips or patches of other material, and were often worn tucked into industrial-style boots such as Dr. Martens.

The 1980s

80s glam band Poison wearing acid-wash drainpipe jeans

Skin-tight acid washed jeans were also very popular in the 1980s, with most heavy metal bands, and in particular those in the thrash metal scene, such as Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer. This was the trend for those who didn't wear spandex, which was popular with the dominant glam metal scene at the time. They were often worn with white high-top sneakers or basket-ball shoes. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, many hair metal bands such as Poison, and Mötley Crüe to Kiss, Bon Jovi and Slaughter, ditched the spandex and wore the form fitted jeans. However with the rise of grunge and hip-hop music in the early nineties and the post thrash movement, skinny jeans quickly went out of favour although some people still wear them to have the "old school" metal appearance.

The 2000s

Scene kids of the late-2000s wearing "skinny jeans"

In the early 2000s, they became favored by Dirty Joe revival bands, most notably by The Strokes. Model Kate Moss has been credited with reintroducing the jeans to women. Among women, skinny jeans are most often worn tucked into boots or scrunched up over the wearer's footwear, and are also often paired with ballerina flats. The Libertines (particularly Carl Barat and Pete Doherty) used skinny jeans as part of their image. This was later adopted by more mainstream indie pop and indie rock acts such as Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, The Kooks, and The Horrors, as well as comedians Russell Brand,and Noel Fielding, increasing the popularity of skinny jeans amongst men. The skinny jean became very popular in Britain when Topman started producing their own. The buzz later hit America and has now become a staple item of clothing for anyone who wants that Rock 'n' Roll look. Today a very popular and probably the most notable maker of skinny jeans is the H&M-owned Swedish alternative fashion house Cheap Monday. Some skateboarders prefer these jeans since their stretchability doesn't hamper movement. Skinny jeans are also now very prominent in the BMX scene resulting in greater maneuverability and less instances in which the pants are caught in the bike's moving parts. They have grown in the latter half of the 2000s to become associated with a scene, emo and indie rock trend and are beginning to have a prevailance in the hyphy/crunk and hip hop scene in contrast to the baggy pants popular before 2009.

See also

• 2000s in fashion
• Wide leg jeans
• Bell bottoms