Leggings are now uncool to that I say good riddance

As trend experts ring the death knell for the once ubiquitous item, Olivia Petter explains why she's glad to wave goodbye

- Olivia Petter

For years, I had a nemesis in the form of high-waisted, overpriced, black Lycra.

Leggings were never my thing - not when they were being sold at Gilly Hicks and Nike in the Noughties and certainly not when they were being sold for double the price at Lululemon a decade later. So there was a major sigh of relief when I learnt that this once fashionable stretchy item had fallen out of favour among the cool kids. That’s right, Gen Z thinks leggings are lame, which means all of us must stop wearing them immediately. Let’s hold hands and start a loose-fitting revolution together. Please.

At least that’s the takeaway in a recent report titled “The Death of Leggings?” by retail analyst group Edited, which examined the item’s decreasing popularity in the US over the last three years. In 2022, 46.9 per cent of all athleisure bottoms were leggings. By 2025, that number had dropped to 38.7 per cent. Industry insiders, meanwhile, have been saying for some time that tighter workout gear was being usurped by baggier, 1990s-inspired silhouettes.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Emily Oberg, founder of the It-girl athleisure brand Sporty and Rich, explained how looser fits are the new sartorial power move in the workout world. “A super fit girl hiding her body under baggy clothes is more appealing than skimpy, tight workout clothes,” she told the publication. In July, Vogue called for fashion fans to “forget” their leggings, heralding the return of vintage items in the gym instead. Gone is the ubiquity of high-street leggings that will set you back £100 or more a pop; the publication said its key workout look references were Madonna and Princess Diana circa 1990. Think cycling shorts, basketball shorts, adidas tracksuit bottoms, and boxy slogan T-shirts.