A decade ago, when Laura Baker was still managing wholesale for fashion brands, retailers often avoided embellished or outlandish men’s denim because shoppers were content with the plain heritage styles they stocked, she said.
Now, Baker says denim drops are akin to hyped sneaker releases amongst her menswear customers at ESSX, the multi-brand boutique she opened in New York in 2023.
“We definitely have people on waitlists, on hold for them,” she said, pointing to jeans by Los Angeles label 424 crafted out of calf leather but treated to resemble washed black denim as an example. “The jeans were so insane that before we even unpacked the box, they were already out the door.”
Expressive jeans with bold graphic prints, intense embellishments such as illustrative embroidery and extremely baggy silhouettes, usually more common within women’s denim, are proliferating in men’s denim as guys embrace more variety in their jeans. Baker said Acne Studios’ photo-realistic trompe l’oeil denim, which creates the illusion of overly accessorised jeans through a print, are nearly impossible to keep in stock. StockX reports the top two pairs of jeans on its platform, representing 27 percent of all trades in the category, are from Levi’s collaboration with Denim Tears, which covers Levi’s 501 jeans in Denim Tears’ white “cotton wreath” logos.
Niche brands within the space are picking up the most traction. Retail insights company Edited said the denim brand with the most inventory at Mr. Porter is Japanese cult label Kapital, with 54 percent of it including badging, patchwork and jacquard designs. On runways, the look is showing up in the work of labels like Who Decides War, known for its elaborately reworked denim, and in the collaborations brands like Sacai and Walter Van Beirendonck have done with denim giants such as Levi’s and G-Star.
“The appetite for wearing more creative and wild fits has expanded and exploded, especially in menswear,” said Amy Leverton of Denim Dudes, a consultancy and trend forecasting company that works with brands such as Levi’s and Gap.
Denim consultants don’t anticipate the trend will flood the mass market, as trends in menswear tend to move slowly and many guys still gravitate toward more conservative options. But it is trickling down, particularly among younger consumers willing to try bolder denim styles, creating sales opportunities for brands thinking beyond traditional five-pocket jeans.
“Anecdotally, I will say there’s a big white space for men’s denim right now,” said Benjamin Talley Smith, a denim consultant who has worked for brands such as Helmut Lang, Everlane and Walmart.
The Opportunity in Men’s Denim
That white space is wide open. Smith pointed out that, unlike the typical situation in womenswear, there isn’t one dominant brand seen as the pinnacle in this category of men’s denim.
But consultants such as Leverton see the space being filled by a growing wave of expressive indie denim designers flourishing on social media. During the pandemic, brands such as Japan’s Proleta Re Art and Paradoxe Paris — two emerging labels that have also collaborated with big names such as Gucci and Rick Owens in recent years — began experimenting and posting their work online, where they started to attract a following. Leverton also pointed to Utah-based Bad Son, which released its first piece of viral denim — a pair of “Overgrowth” denim cargo pants with embroidery that resembled ivy vines — in 2022. Since then, the brand has accumulated over 200,000 followers on Instagram.
Bad Son co-founder Conner Lobato said the brand, whose jeans are priced from $160 to $200, is today a “pant-first company,” with its Overgrowth denim becoming a staple. It has done around $2.1 million in sales this year, he noted, with only two collections, sold solely through an e-commerce store that’s been open for just two weeks.
“You can wear a simple top and have a bold pair of pants just do all the talking,” said Hieu Tran, Bad Son’s other co-founder, who handles most of the design work for the DTC label.
Leverton believes part of the appeal of smaller labels such as Bad Son comes from consumers having to “be in the know” about the brand. The label’s founders agree, pointing out how the boldness and unconventional embellishments on their denim act as a signal to those who know what to look for. “Anyone that knows or sees a pair of our pants, out on the street, it’s easy to tell it’s from Bad Son,” said Tran.
How Edgy Men’s Jeans Are Moving The Needle for Mass Denim
The challenge for retailers is working out the right mix of boundary-pushing designs and more conventional styles in their assortments. Although Leverton personally finds more directional denim exciting, she said most denim consumers are still looking for regular jeans. However, she now advises her clients to think outside of the traditional five-pocket.
“That could just be through a twisted seam detail, a laser monogram pattern on just the back pocket. It’s just moving the needle slightly.” said Leverton.
That approach is on display at Urban Outfitters, where denim is a “cornerstone” of the retailer’s business, according to chief merchandising officer Marybeth Cahill. Currently, Cahill says the best men’s denim sellers for its BDG private label are baggy jeans boasting details such as cargo pockets, track pant stripes and even an embroidered spider by the back pocket. The company designed its denim programme with insight from an “UO Insiders” group that includes 6,000 customers between the ages of 18-26.
“For us, it’s really just about providing that balance for them and not swinging the pendulum one way or the other, which some retailers can do,” said Cahill.
She added that the denim industry may have put its male customers in a box too much in the past, limiting what it offered them. But men’s tastes have changed, she said, with social media providing everyone with greater access to fashion scenes in metropolitan cities.
Smith said he even draws on men’s denim in the work he does consulting for women’s brands such as Khaite. He’s been introducing baggier fits and referencing vintage Jnco jeans from the 1990s and utilitarian men’s styles.
At ESSX, Baker said customers can still find five-pocket jeans by Our Legacy. They sell well as a staple, but they don’t move as fast as statement jeans by Acne Studios or Y/Project.
“Right now it’s been so much about the extreme,” she said. “We just started carrying Lu’u Dan, who has some of the largest pants I’ve ever seen in this industry and they’ve gone so fast for us.”
She’ll continue looking for “really interesting” denim as a buyer for now, until the pendulum swings back.
