5 controversial jean trends that will be everywhere in 2025

Everyone has a favorite pair of jeans – after all, they’re the foundation of an infinite number of outfits, but what happens when your failsafes start to feel a little, same? After personally wearing jeans for years (it took me a lifetime to find a pair that fit my waist-to-hip ratio and didn’t cost the earth), it was a pair of high-waisted, perfectly tailored straight legs that changed everything for me. But after living in said jeans for the past four years now, the wash has faded slightly and the fit has started to relax, and looking for the next denim trend has thrown out more colors, cuts and styles than ever before. Our requirements are not too much to ask! How hard can it be to find a flattering, fashionable pair of jeans that make us look and feel good? Well, the answer may lie in 2025’s denim offerings.

To help you find what could be the next mom jean or perfect straight leg, I set out to find the best jeans trends of 2025, and the results were a highly controversial bunch. If you were hoping for the old classics recycled for another year, think again. Instead, the next 12 months are all about pushing denim trends forward and turning up the volume (so that jean you thought you’d seen the back of might just resurface). From party pants to leg-lengthening details, keep scrolling to see the six jean trends set to have everyone talking now.

The top 5 jean trends of 2025, according to a fashion editor:

1. On a string

(Image credit: Gabriela Hearst – LaunchMetrics)

Style notes: After spending most of 2020 in joggers at home, 2022 was the year we couldn’t wait to get back to sculpting denim. High-waisted and straight-leg jeans became the look du jour, and even rumors of a return to skinnies floated around in fashion circles, but as the population settled back into the daily commute, it immediately became clear that comfort and practicality are just as important as polish.

(Image credit: Aknvas – LaunchMetrics)

Style notes: Low-slung, wide-leg jeans appeared on the runways the following year, but how low we really would go was debatable. Still looking for an answer to the denim debacle? The 2025’s drawstring waist is the borderline between lounge and luxe, and can be styled as easily as tailoring with wide legs.

Buy jeans with drawstrings:

2. Damsel in Distress

(Image credit: Valentino – Launchmetrics)

Style notes: Acid washes, light blues, inky indigos and stonewashes – whatever your color preference, 2025 suggests that whatever style of jeans you gravitate towards, it almost always looks best when it’s been “lived in”. Cool girls will agree that the best-fitting denim is the love-worn pair that’s been broken in, and while loose legs and relaxed fits are still the most popular silhouette, this time they’re faded, ripped or worn down.

(Image credit: Ralph Laurent – Launchmetrics)

Style notes: Instead of pairing them with band tees and tank tops for a grunge effect, the S/S ’25 runway did the opposite, dressing up distressed jeans with blazers and heels, elevating this casual jean into eveningwear territory.

Buy distressed jeans:

3. Fifty Shades of Grey

(Image credit: Coperni – Launchmetrics)

Style notes: It just wouldn’t be a trend round up without at least one one color trend, and while we usually alternate between true blue and black jeans for autumn/winter and ecru jeans for high summer, 2025 presents an alternative that works all year round: versatile grey.