Look of the Week: Haim sisters make the case for the return of the skinny jean

On Tuesday, Este, Alana and Danielle Haim — the sister trio behind the eponymous pop rock band Haim — arrived in London for an appearance on BBC Radio One. All wore skinny pants, albeit in their own way, effortlessly demonstrating how to style a controversial mid-aughts staple three ways. Este, the eldest sister, styled her edgy low-rise black leather pants with a solid patent heel and a lace-trimmed camisole. Alana — also known to fans as “baby Haim” — opted for a more bohemian look with patchwork suede blue skinny jeans from Dolce & Gabbana, finished off with black ballet flats and a forest green leather jacket. Danielle, the band’s lead singer, wore more industrial denim finished with silver zips and extra stitching. Her white military-style jacket, complete with gold-trimmed epaulets, was cropped at the waist in classic 2010s style — allowing a layered look with the vest underneath. The slim, skinny pant was a mainstay of wardrobes across the west in 2007 to 2018, seemingly stocked everywhere from fast fashion stores to luxury retailers. They were once a great leveller, beloved by nonchalant British ‘It girls’ Kate Moss and Alexa Chung as much as slick US stars such as Rihanna and Beyoncé (there are few occasions where Kim Kardashian and Amy Winehouse’s sartorial taste crossed, and the skinny jean was one of them). But as the style makes a 2025 comeback, it has been met with polarized opinions. On X, one user quipped that the return of skinny jeans marked the biggest “recession indicator” yet. In March, a series of street interviews with young people conducted by social media and influencer agency Screenshot spotlighted a shared disdain for skinny jeans as a fashion trend. But there have long been indicators of a changing tide — and shrinking silhouette. At the start of the year, WGSN’s senior denim strategist Susie Draffan shared her predictions with CNN, which included a “very slow-burn return in 2025 for the skinny jean” in the face of catwalk appearances and growing Miu and McQueen all sent vacuum-packed-style denim down the Fall-Winter runways in 2024. Unofficial trend barometer Bella Hadid has also been spotted in tight drainpipe denim (styled with chunky boots) during a recent trip to Rome, while Lila Moss carries on the family name by pioneering the skinny style just like her mother.by pioneering the skinny style just like her mother. The Haim sisters have recently been delving into other areas of 2000s-era pop culture — including their own yearbook photos — to promote their new album, “I Quit .” The visual artwork for singles like “Relationships” and “Everybody’s Trying to Figure Me Out” reference famous paparazzi shots of Nicole Kidman shouting with relief (allegedly after signing her divorce papers with Tom Cruise in 2001) and Kate Moss in 2000 sunning herself against a black SUV. For their most recent single, “Take Me Back,” the band shared an image shot in Manchester — each dressed in a pair of extremely low-slung jeans and peek-a-boo lacy briefs — that has been compared by fans to a much-circulated 2004 pap shot of Keira Knightly wearing a similar outfit. It seems fitting, then, that Haim’s own paparazzi photographs add to the feedback loop of act like an extension of their album narrative. Shot by Terence O’Connor, their staged images are a case of art imitating life. But the sisters are going one step further by blurring the lines between reality and reference as they commit to the sartorial touchstones of 2000s culture round-the-clock, too.