In my opinion, they definitely are. High waisted jeans have been dominant for YEARS. But with the Y2K revival, low rise jeans are definitely making a come back. Go to any high school in America right now and youll definitely see way more than 5 years ago.

Google search trends backs this up. "High rise" as a fashion topic peaked in March 2022, and since then the search volume for low rise has gone up 26% (14-->40).

There's plenty of recent trends/aesthetics that support this such as y2k revival, model off duty, Slavic dolls, and of course brat. So many celebrities like Bella hadid, zendya, Kendall Jenner, etc are regularly seen wearing them. Keep in mind, all of these people have modeled and are considered fashionable.

Are skinny jeans back? I don't really think so. Ive mostly seen boot cut/bell bottoms just from people at my school and bell bottoms are definitely beating skinny jeans in Google search trends. People are turning to bell-bottoms as y2k instead of the stereotypical second skin skinny jeans that were the reality.

From what I've seen people are starting to hate high waisted jeans, especially the extremely high and baggy ones that go up to your ribs. I've seen (mostly people on the Internet) voice their hate for them, saying they look like "diapers" and more notably, people criticizing women for using high waisted pants to "hide their gut". I think this stems from people wanting more natural proportions? I'm not sure though.

So why?

Beauty standards are changing. Being able to wear low rise jeans fashionably really goes hand in hand with thinness. Search trends like "body positivity" and "fat acceptance" are going down. People who were considered the ideals of beauty are losing weight and moving away from the curvier aesthetic that was being pounded into us a couple years ago. Think of the Kardashians, Megan thee stallion, Ariana grande, ice spice, etc.

Ozempic is making it easier for rich people to lose weight. Young men are starting to become more conservative, which you can argue goes hand in hand with stricter beauty standards (I'm not going to). If you haven't noticed gym bros and pilates princesses are huge right now. Gen z is more committed to going to the gym than millennials ever were. Our culture is shifting to prioritizing fitness over self acceptance (not that those are mutually exclusive), and I fear it's less about health and more about being as thin as possible. "Big back" is literally one of the most common insults right now. I definitely see heroin chic coming back soon. Low rise jeans are coming back as a status symbol, to show off thinness.

Not that I don't like low rise jeans, I actually think they're really cute on me personally. Just food for thought I guess.