Picture the scene: it’s 2016, you’re at a university house party wearing black skinny jeans and a Topshop peplum top. Justin Bieber’s What Do You Mean? is playing through someone’s portable JBL speaker in the kitchen, and you’re drinking a questionable concoction from a red plastic tumbler.
Fast-forward a decade and, against all odds, black skinny jeans are back on the fashion agenda for autumn/winter 2026. Quite right JB, what do you mean?
I’ll admit, this is one denim revival I wasn’t particularly desperate to see. After years spent championing wide-leg trousers, straight-cut jeans and gloriously comfortable baggy styles, the prospect of squeezing myself back into spray-on denim doesn’t exactly fill me with joy.
But before you dig out your old Topshop Joni jeans, there’s something to be said for the black skinny jean’s latest reincarnation. With autumn’s penchant for gothic glamour, witchy dressing and knee-high leather boots, suddenly the silhouette makes a rather convincing case for itself.
