Jeans of the Season

The cultural lore surrounding jeans is practically endless—and as Yves Saint Laurent famously remarked, “I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant.” Denim remains one of fashion's most versatile anchors, so here, SSENSE breaks down the best pairs to consider this season.

If one silhouette has been defined for the last few seasons, it is undeniably the barrel jean. Named after the rounded wooden casks used for wine or oil, the fit bows dramatically outward through the leg before tapering inward at the waist and ankle. Easily mistaken for standard wide-leg or baggy cuts, its identity relies on structural precision: strategic panels, darts, and sculpted seams force rigid denim into a deliberate arc that rests just above the ankle.

This shift was gradual. Designer Pieter Mulier first introduced the shape on ALAÏA’s Fall/Winter 2023 runway, while Citizens of Humanity popularized it with tailored everyday iterations. From Phoebe Philo and Celine to Uniqlo, virtually every brand has since staked its claim on the silhouette.

After years under Y2K’s shadow, the low-rise dominance is quietly ceding ground to high-rise silhouettes—a cyclical shift mirroring the late-1990s through early-2000s transition. Just as Alexander McQueen’s 1993 Bumster jeans seeded a movement that exploded three decades later via Miu Miu, high-rise cuts are dominating the current Fall/Winter 2026 and Spring/Summer 2027 runways.

Yet low-rise hasn't vanished entirely, leaving wardrobe minimalists with a familiar dilemma. The solution lies in the high-low approach: sizing up on a mid- or high-rise pair to slouch them low on the hips. Instead of continually expanding your jeans lineup, this versatile trick lets one pair do both—just cinch with a belt when you want them high again.

At the core of these three brands, jeans aren’t just a product category—they are permanently encoded into the DNA of their respective brands.

AGOLDE was born in 1989 from the minds of “Godfather of Denim” Adriano Goldschmied and retail pioneer Ron Herman, breaking classic 5-pocket conventions. Re-launched in 2014 by Jérôme Dahan—co-founder of 7 For All Mankind and Citizens of Humanity—the brand remains an authority on vintage-inspired fits.

Similarly, jeans have long served as a proving ground for visionary designers. Exactly thirty years ago, in 1996, Jonny Johansson launched Acne Studios in Sweden by distributing 100 pairs of raw denim with distinct red stitching to creative friends. While Acne has expanded into a full fashion house, its original core lives on through the '1996' line.

Then there is A.P.C.’s raw selvedge denim. First introduced in Paris in 1987, founder Jean Touitou famously instructed wearers to go six months without washing their jeans, allowing each pair to mold into a uniquely personal fade.

When rising designers tackle jeans, the results are anything but conventional. Australian-born, Madrid-based brand Edward Cuming elevates standard cuts through raw subversion, defining its silhouettes with exposed seams, frayed edges, and dramatically twisted outseams.

For LU’U DAN, jeans serve as a canvas for cultural roots and personal storytelling. The brand coats its pieces in hand-drawn lettering, evocative graphics, and subtle calligraphic text—including the Chinese characters 榴彈 (grenade). It is a fitting nod to the label's name, which merges the Vietnamese words for “pomegranate” (lựu) and “bullet” (đạn), loosely translating to “dangerous man.”

Meanwhile, Paris-based, Italian-born designer Andrea Bertazzon takes a deliberate, modular approach with Seconda. Founded in 2024 alongside a rotating cast of collaborators, the brand operates on its own timeline of a single annual collection. Prioritizing meaningful construction over seasonal output, Seconda crafts open-ended, convertible silhouettes designed to be transformed and styled in multiple ways.