The big, booming business of denim

Denim is having a moment, once again. The indigo fabric dominated social feeds in 2025, from Sydney Sweeney’s “great jeans” ad to Gap’s “better in denim” campaign, and Beyonce’s Denim Cowboy collaboration with Levi’s. What’s trending is pretty much everything: barrel jeans, flares, high rise, low rise, 501s, cigarette, stovepipe — each taking its turn as the “it” jean from one month to the next.

Brands are working hard to sustain the momentum. According to TV ad data company EDO, almost 70% more denim ads aired on US networks in 2025 compared to 2024. But denim’s current rising popularity is more than marketing hype: according to Grand View Research, the category is expected to grow around 40% in value between now and 2030 to hit $121.5bn.

What does this all tell us? According to Heartleigh Little, cofounder of New York denim brand Thalo Denim, it’s pretty obvious: “It tells us that everyone is wearing jeans.”

“If you walk down the streets of New York, that’s what everyone’s wearing,” she says. “It’s an easy pant that says so many things while saying nothing at all at the same time, and you can recreate it in so many ways.”

The changing fabric of society

Denim’s uptick in popularity reflects a world where stretchy, comfy styles are out and looking put together is back in. Lululemon’s leggings aren’t moving the way they used to, with the athleisure giant reporting that North American sales had stalled in Q2 2025, with revenues rising just 1%. Levi’s, meanwhile, logged a 6% increase in revenues that same quarter, as well as its 13th consecutive quarter of global DTC sales growth. “Covid lockdowns were the catalyst for athleisure,” says Maurice Mosseri, the cofounder of Still Here. “But coming out of that, people talk about revenge spending, but there was also revenge dressing.”

Diverse denim has bridged the gap, with styles that can be dressed up as well as down, and consumers reaching for the fabric on more occasions. Celebrities have been wearing dressy jeans on date nights, while highly tailored styles have become more common just as mandatory return-to-office policies have started to kick in at major companies. “Workwear has become much more casual post-Covid and with the rise of working from home,” says Paige Adams-Geller, cofounder and creative director of denim brand PAIGE. “People want jeans versatile enough to wear all day, at the desk or out at night, and they’re paying closer attention to fit and fabrication than ever before.”

Capturing wardrobe share

In response to people wanting to wear denim more often, brands are expanding their ranges and investing in fit and fabric quality. In Q2 2025, Target says it saw its denim sales increase by 28%, thanks to the introduction of “new styles, silhouettes, and washes”. For smaller brands, the challenge is becoming the denim brand of choice for trend-chasing Gen Z consumers, who are also becoming increasingly powerful spenders.

Thalo’s strategy has been to reinvent classic styles to accommodate a wider range of body types, having identified a gap in the market for curvier consumers, who've previously been relegated to stretch denim that often wears out quickly. “It’s significantly more expensive, because we’re cutting double the patterns, and our fit process was similar to developing a bra where you have the band and the cup size,” says Little, referring to the waist and hip measurements customers can select from. “It's the more tedious route to take, and it's why so many [brands have] left it up to the consumer.” Thalo says its curve cuts sell well across all waist sizes — reflecting broad consumer interest in better-fitting products.

Mosseri agrees that mass-market denim has been underengineered in recent years, although a shift towards better quality has become evident. “When we launched Still Here, everyone we spoke to in the industry said if we weren't going to do stretch denim, we weren't going to make it,” he says. “That would change almost entirely by around 2022, when 100% cotton became the standard and nobody wanted stretch any more.”

This flight away from mass-market stretch styles designed to last just a few seasons, and towards quality pieces built for decades of wear, means consumers are willing to spend more on denim. For brands, this is great news: targeting the mid-to-high end of the market means healthy average order values and margins, making the investment required to develop a denim range from scratch more viable, even when using expensive, higher quality fabrics and production methods.

“Denim is one of the hardest garment industries to break into,” says Mosseri. “When we first got into it, I was like, this is a disaster. There’s a steep learning curve and it requires so many people — designers, pattern makers, wash specialists, trim specialists — just to make one pair of jeans. But once you figure that out, it scales. It’s’ why you see everyone from major fashion houses to cheap retailers doubling down on denim and making it a hero category.”

Trending today, gone tomorrow

Denim styles often lean classic, but the category is not immune to the rapid churn of micro-trends on social media. It’s a fine line for denim brands to walk. When a style hits fever pitch, they’ need it ready and available to capitalize. But lean in too hard, and they could be left with inventory that lingers well beyond the trend cycle.

Viral denim styles include AGOLDE’s “criss cross” and “peplum” jeans, or Acne Studios' tromp-l’oeil painted jeans, as seen on Charli xcx. “How do you make something that’s immediately, visibly different and exciting, with a sense of urgency? Bringing those elements to denim is a new way of designing,” says Mosseri. Still Here’s “most viral” style is its Cool jean, which features a low rise and a drawstring toggle waist. Over 50,000 pairs have been sold since it launched in July 2023, and together with Still Here’s Sport jean, which has drawstring toggles on the hems, accounts for more than 50% of Still Here’s denim sales. The rest, Mosseri says, comes from more classic styles.

“Denim as a product continues to exist because it respects the past,” he says. “But it shouldn’t be inhibited by that.”