When Topshop announced it would be returning to the catwalk for the first time in seven years this September, few expected that its high-brow revival would be ushered in with a pair of... Joni jeans.
The formerly-cult pair of Topshop jeans are the relic of a bygone era. Skinny and high-waisted with a bit of stretch, they’re everything we have been talked out of wearing for the past ten years.
But as the brand confirmed on Instagram earlier this week, Joni jeans will feature in Topshop’s first collection since the relaunch. The collection, which is curated by 2010s It Girl Cara Delevingne, was announced with a picture of Delevingne wearing the telltale dark denim jeans, paired with an oversized leather jacket and black thong stilettos.
“The countdown for the Topshop relaunch starts now,” the post reads. “To mark the moment, Cara Delevingne has curated a 40 piece edit. You’ll be able to shop her collection on Topshop.com on August 15th from 10AM.
“And yes... expect Joni Jeans.”
Cara isn’t the only It Girl to have been spotted in spray-on skinnies recently. Brat summer innovator Charli xcx has been making a noticeable foray away from oversized denim this summer, with the singer spotted wearing black skinnies and a tight leather jacket backstage ahead of her headline set at We Love Green festival in Paris.
As for the boys: the Hedi Slimane archetype of the 2010s is back with a vengeance. The streets of Soho are once again littered with tight-fitting black denim, and TikTok videos explaining how to achieve the Hedi look on a budget (jeans from Slimane’s original 2003 Dior show, in which he introduced skinny jeans in a big way, now retail for £900) are garnering tens of thousands of views.
Indeed, it is Slimane we have to thank for their revival. The so-called “Godfather of Indie Sleaze” ushered them back onto the autumn/winter 2023 runways, along with brands like Saint Laurent, Prada, Gucci and Blumarine. And like all high fashion, they took time to trickle down.
But the true signifier that skinny jeans are back in vogue is that they have finally become counter-cultural.
All the claims of “skinny jeans being back” over the past few years have felt awfully boy-crying-wolf, because as long as the short back and sides Essex boys were still wearing them, they could never be cool.
In 2025, the standard consumer has finally moved on. If you don’t believe me, check the ever-widening hem length of Love Island contestants across the past three seasons, or look to the viral “four lads in jeans” from 2021 who reunited in 2024 with an entirely wide-leg new look.
This decline laid the path for the countercultural incline. And it started years ago. In 2022, market research firm NPD Group confirmed that straight-leg jeans had outsold skin-tight styles for the first time in years. Now that wide-leg styles are the norm, skinny jeans are once again becoming the “alternative” option.
Plus, there was always one more requirement for the skinny jeans revival prophecy to come true: for skinny jeans to be back, there needed to be a shoe in fashion that would suit them. The chunky shoe trends of recent years have made that impossible.
Enter: the ballet flat. When paired with a skinny jean, it evokes the perfect level of early 2010s coquettish indie sleaze. It used to be year nine Chemistry classes and Crystal Castles. Now it’s Pinkpantheress and fashion week shows. It’s somehow cool all over again.
You might not want to hear it, but now is the time to hop right back on the skinny jeans bandwagon. If you wait too long, you might just miss it.
