Denim Trends Have No Age Limit at Bluezone
Do consumers have to age out of fashion trends?
That was the question Tilmann Wr?bel, founder of the denim consultancy Monsieur-T, posed last week at Bluezone in Munich, Germany.
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“One of the first things I always hear when I am out in the market talking to retailers and brands is how trends do not influence anyone older than 35,” Wr?bel said. “Consumers under 35 ask for trendy jeans, while anyone over 35 would rather buy comfort stretch, slim, old-fashioned jeans.”
It doesn’t have to be this way, he added. Meme culture and viral TikToks paint a predominately youthful market at first glance, but in a time when presidential campaigns are co-oping Gen Z’s party-kid “brat” aesthetic and “very mindful, very demure” is filtering into the vocabulary of all ages, parts of the denim industry may be resting on outdated views of age and fashion.
Brands have created a reliable and safe business by dictating 501 look-a-like styles to consumers of a certain age instead of encouraging them to take risks and embracing trends even though this goes against what is happening on the runway. Denim, in general, is in style. Despite analysts’ predictions kids could be wearing slouchy joggers, Wr?bel said many are returning to school in indigo and black denim. Meanwhile, the democratic fabric is increasingly worn to elegant red-carpet events like the Met Gala and the Cannes Film Festival.
“Always remember trends are a part of all our businesses. There is more to denim than the five-pocket design,” he said.
One emerging trend is the layered waistband. “The last few years have brought a lot of extremes in high rises and low rises. Now we’re seeing designers emphasize the waist of jeans with double, triple or more layer waistbands,” he said.
The trend is a way for consumers who want to have that ’90 saggy look again without exposing their underwear. Plus, innovations in lightweight denim have made it easier to wear the stacked look. Designers can also achieve unique looks by folding down waistbands or applying waistbands to the construction of tops.
Brands like 3.Paradis, Casablanca and System showed stacked waistbands in their recent runway shows.
Like many trends today, layered waistbands began as a viral trend with fans of True Religion wearing multiple pairs of their boldly stitched jeans. “The world record right now in Manhattan is a guy who’s wearing faulty genes on top of each other,” Wr?bel said.
Baggy and horseshoe silhouettes have a stronghold on brands’ Spring/Summer 2025 collections, but Wr?bel says the return of skinny jeans is imminent.
Gucci, Celine and Saint Laurent have given the polarizing fit an edgy new vibe in their recent collections.
“We’re not talking about the skinny jeans we saw on sexy women in the ’80s or ’90s. We’re talking about styles that are gender fluid and part of a rock ‘n’ roll revival,” he said.
Designers are showing more artistic denim by using digital printing and laser machines to create patterns and surface interests. Though the sustainable technologies began as alternative ways for the industry to achieve a denim look without indigo pigment, they’ve become creative tools adopted by designers and artists to make unique designs.
Here, Wr?bel says fabrics like white lightweight 3×1 twill become a canvas for trompe l’oeil denim. The technique has already been used by brands like Diesel, Levi’s and Adidas Originals collaborator Kseniaschnaider.
Designers are using laser technology to create stripes, patterns and renderings of famous artwork—a far cry from the whiskering it was originally intended for.
As technology pushes creativity into new directions, another part of the denim sector is interested in reviving old tech, Wr?bel said. Increasingly, he said young designers are introducing tech-inspired accessories into their denim collections, be it upcycling colorful wires as belts or using compact discs as reflective embellishments.
The same cohort is keen on exaggerating common elements of jeans. Wr?bel said design students tend to overdo things like applying belt loops to the entire surface of garments. He added that they view the denim factory as a creative playground—a mindset that more seasoned designers and brands need to adopt.
“Go into your factories, see the machines you have and check what you could do differently with these machines,” he said. “Have some freedom.”
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