How to edit your jeans

Boring denim is for Boomers. In 2026, we're wearing jorts, patchwork jackets, beaded bodysuits. Ready to upgrade your wardrobe?

- Tanya Syed

They told us that denim is a classic. Blue jeans go with everything, they're timeless, they assured us. They lied. Nothing looks more dated than jeans from the wrong generation.

Are your denims low-rise, bunching at the ankles or tight enough to cause blood clots? Please retreat from public life. Are they high-rise and bulky? Give them back to your dad. Are they frayed on one thigh and/or flared at the hems? Kill them with fire.

So, what to keep? Chanel’s new creative director, Matthieu Blazy, opened his first show with a pair of straight jeans this spring (The look we saw on Bhavitha Mandava, all over our feeds). Calvin Klein’s Spring 2026 denim campaign stars Jungkook. And to no one’s surprise, fast fashion is putting runway-approved trends into the mall and the late-night flash sale. There are more than 1,000 ways to wear denim, and it looks like 9,000 of them are the wrong way, again. We asked stylists Kinnari Jain and Ustat Kharbanda; Jinita Sheth, founder of Label Jenn; and Manvi Daga, who runs the eponymous studio, how to throw the best denim fit together.