I never thought I’d live to see the day that mom jeans came back into style. I remember cringing at the alarmingly high denim waistlines that my friends’ mothers sported at every play date. I was 4 years old when the ’90s ended, but mom jeans remained a hit with the middle-aged and elderly set for years to come. Eventually, they began to fade out of my immediate consciousness and into the idyllic group of memories in the back of my head called childhood. Now, however, those denim punch lines are slowly creeping back into mainstream fashion, along with a slew of other ’90s statements.
It’s not news to say this. Go into any popular clothing store, and you’ll be greeted by a sea of flannel, chokers and denim jackets. Nirvana logos plaster graphic tees everywhere. Dr. Martens are back in more colors than ever. Beck just won a Grammy over Beyoncé. If it was a shock to see mom jeans join the ’90s revival, it was a bigger one to realize that they looked good. Suddenly the second-hand embarrassment from my pre-adolescent days dissolved into … appreciation? It was amazing how something so monumentally uncool could suddenly seem chic.
Of course, the recycling of fashion trends from other decades isn’t news, either. According to Ecclesiastes, there’s nothing new under the sun, and popular fashion is no exception. This time, however, things seem different. Maybe it’s because this is the first time our generation has seen trends resurface from our own childhood. The resurgence of ’80s neon and ’70s bell-bottoms had a novelty to them as I grew up, but ’90s clothes are associated with memories, with identity. Granted, for a lot of us, that identity mainly consisted of tricycles and Nickelodeon. There’s a certain kind of nostalgia that occurs when you look at a photo of yourself as a kid, sporting a multicolored fleece and chunky white sneakers, and think, “I wish I still had that outfit.”
Speaking of chunky white sneakers, the most distinguishing feature of the mom jeans phenomenon is its appropriation of the uncool. Back when I was a kid, Oprah spearheaded a campaign on her show that rallied my mother (and millions of others) against the mom jean. Later in 2003, Saturday Night Live mocked the style in a skit that effectively popularized the term “mom jeans.” Ironically enough, this style seems to have never really been in style. So why are fashion bloggers everywhere scouring the racks of Goodwill for a pair?
The answer to this question lies, once again, in the ’90s. Reclaiming the weird was the whole point of grunge fashion. Combat boots, oversized flannels and all-over denim didn’t become popular because they were flattering, but because they embraced the unflattering. The people who sported these clothes did it as a way to set themselves apart from mainstream trends, following in the footsteps of punk music and pastel hair. The same styles that now appear on high schoolers everywhere were once decidedly unhip, donned by blue-collar workers and dads exclusively. The flannels and work boots were the mom jeans of their time, and now we’re doing to the latter what ’90s kids did to the former.
Of course, the anti-trends of 15 years ago soon lost their credibility when everyone began to imitate them. Such is the cycle of popular culture. But if the resurgence of mom jeans and ’90s garb says anything, it’s that weird is good. In a world where being cool and aloof seems like the all-encompassing goal, we face particular scrutiny for anything that seems unusual, be it our taste in clothes, music, books or idea of a good time. It’s easy to feel alienated due to what you love simply because it’s not what everyone else loves. Now, I don’t know that anyone has a particular love for baggy, high-waisted denim, but I do know that if we can find a soft spot for the embarrassing fashions that used to make us cringe at our moms, we can do the same for the little things that make us weird.
Like the absurdly confident parents of our pasts, it’s time to embrace who we are, without editing. Wear the bold outfit. Stop apologizing for your music preference. Go out. Stay in. But most importantly, never be ashamed. Trends are always changing, and if we can learn anything from mom jeans, it’s that even the dorky stuff will have its moment in the spotlight.
This is not to say you should wait for that moment. If we spent our entire lives waiting for everyone else to love all the things we do, we’d be waiting quite a long time. Why not be vocal about them while they still make our eyes light up? I realize I’m assigning a lot of symbolism to a pair of pants. But if it’s suddenly hip to be as uncool as our parents, maybe we can also start being as uncool as ourselves. One pair of mom jeans, please.
Well said Ms Freebairn. A pair of mom jeans for me too!