I Tried on Kate’s New Jeans
Should we start calling her the Princess of Flares?
The Princess of Wales wore two new pairs of jeans last week, which in the fashion world is decidedly no big deal. But this is royal style, where minor changes spark major conversation! Catherine has been a devotee of skinny jeans for years now. They are a very consistent and relatable aspect of her expansive wardrobe. Dabbling in new denim silhouettes, to my mind, is noteworthy.
After spending too much time thinking about one pair (those not-long-but-not- cropped flares), I headed to the mall to try them on for myself. So many thoughts, below!
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So Many Thoughts on Kate’s New Jeans
Denim silhouette deep dive
Before we get into Kate’s specific styles, I want to talk about why I am very interested in trouser silhouettes. My fascination dates back to my time as a retail reporter at the Wall Street Journal, obsessively hunting for consumer insights to explain what clothing sold and what didn’t.
Bottoms, as the category is often called, play a very important role in the store-shopper dynamic. Pants, and specifically jeans, are key to building customer loyalty. Think about it: If you can find a great-fitting pair of jeans — ones that hug your waist, accentuate your butt, fall at just the right length — there’s a strong chance you will revisit and buy another. It’s why you see brands riff on one version of the same style, signaling to the consumer that there’s a new iteration of their favorite fit. (My go-to Madewell style, the Perfect Vintage, comes in curvy, wide-leg, flare, and “kick-out crop.”)
Here’s another thing: With that loyalty comes a stickiness. Once a shopper finds a pant shape they like, they wear them for a while. It’s much easier to experiment with a new sweater or dress silhouette than to change up your trousers. As a result, the bottoms category is on a slow-moving trend pendulum, changing much less often than other clothing styles. And yet! Retailers are always eager for something new to give shoppers a reason to open their wallets. New trouser silhouettes often encourage other purchases, too, including new shapes of tops and a different style of shoe.
As a teen, I was a devotee to what we all called boot-cut jeans. You could wear them with a standard sweater and any kind of shoe (it really didn’t matter because the denim hem touched the ground). And then, in the early 2000s, came a much slimmer cut known as skinny jeans. To be sure, fitted pants had been around before. But this new iteration, made possible by stretch technology infused into denim, was divisive at first. Can you believe shoppers billed them as unflattering? Retailers pushed, desperate for new denim to drive sales.
It took a minute for everyone to get on board with the skinny silhouette. Why? Because your eye needs time to adjust. A new silhouette is a shift in volume, proportion, and emphasis, highlighting new parts of the body. The same thing is happening now that the pendulum is shifting to wider leg. You can sense the shopper reluctance, can’t you? Even though the fashion world wants you to believe skinny jeans are “dead” (Google that sentiment and you’ll find a slew of arguments for and against), everyone still wears them.
The Princess of Flares
Now let’s talk Kate! I get why the princess has held onto her skinny jeans throughout her time in the Windsor fold. I also appreciate the times she’s experimented a bit, dipping her toes into new shapes. Back in the spring of 2021, when she received the Covid vaccine, she wore “Mom” jeans from & Other Stories (the brand’s official name is “Favorite” style). This fall, there was a leaked photo circulating of Kate wearing true wide-leg jeans in a private outing for George’s soccer game.
Which brings us to last week, when the Princess of Wales wore two new denim styles that veered away from her skinny staples. On Wednesday, she wore Mother denim’s Mid-Rise Dazzler Ankle (above) in a dark wash called “Now or Never.” The brand’s website describes the style as its “most popular mid-rise jeans,” offering a “straight” leg and an ankle-length inseam. The next day, she opted for Mother’s the Weekender in a shade called “Deep End,” which the brand calls a “cult-favorite flare jean” (below). The Weekender has a mid-rise and a slightly longer inseam.
It was the second pair that sent me into a bit of a style spiral. If I’m being honest, it read as a bit short to my eye. But — because of all I just explained above — I checked myself! Or rather, I checked the website, which showed the jeans hitting roughly the same point on the model’s legs as they did on Kate’s. (Helpfully, the model on Mother’s site is described as 5-foot 9-inches, the same height as Kate.)
Another tidbit driving my self reflection: I had just bought a new pair of wide-leg jeans that hit my leg in roughly the same place (my new favorite black jeans). And I bought them in large part because of the length! As a cropped devotee for years, I wanted something longer but that wouldn’t pool on the floor the way so many wide-leg styles do. This length felt new, fresh, a reason to shop.
So what was different about Kate’s flares? Determined to make sense of this situation, I did what any responsible reporter would do: I went into the field (read: the mall) to try them myself.
Try-On Test Drive
I headed to Bloomingdale’s, which from my brief internet search appeared to have a substantial Mother denim assortment in store. This impromptu experiment was limited to what I could find on the crowded racks but luckily I came across both the Dazzler (Kate’s first pair) and the Weekender (the second pair). They had them in my size but not in the same wash or hem — but I wasn’t about to let that deter me! I grabbed those two, plus a few more, and headed to the dressing room.
For your reference: I am not Kate’s size. 🙃 I am 5-foot 7-inches and typically wear anywhere between a size 26 and 28 in jeans, depending on the brand. My new Madewell faves are size 26, the Mother jeans I tried on are size 27. Also, I do not own chunky-soled boots like Kate wore with the new jeans (hers are by ba&sh). Instead, I brought my black J.Crew block heel boots, the ones Meghan sported on tour in 2018. Still have ‘em, still love ‘em.
The only version of the Dazzler I could find in my size was in a lighter wash with a frayed hem. (TBH, the color and distressing felt mighty similar to Meghan’s 2017 Invictus jeans, also by Mother! Those were the Looker frayed ankle.)
Calling the Dazzler a straight style, as the brand does, is…a stretch. They had slightly more volume than the tightest skinny jeans but not by much. Speaking of stretch, I had forgotten just how much elastic some Mother denim styles have, which ups the comfort as well as the close fit. As someone who has gravitated toward thicker, stiffer jeans in recent years, this was an adjustment! I would have sized up if it was available in store; these felt snug. On Kate, I could have sworn the Dazzler had the slightest hint of a flare? But IRL there was no flare whatsoever.
In search of more flare, I tried another Mother style called the Hustler. It very similar to the Dazzler but with a higher rise and the slightest kick out at the cuff. On me (above!), it looked like a much closer approximation to Kate’s look. I loved the definitive cropped length and hint of a flare. We all have plenty of cropped skinnies in our rotation at this point, don’t we?
Next up: Kate’s second style, the ones that prompted this trip to the mall. I found the Weekender in “Mint Condition”, a dark wash with a frayed hem (Los Angelenos must prefer the undone look). On the brand’s website, the frayed version of the Weekender is an inch and a half shorter than the sewn hem that Kate wore. This works in my favor, because I am about two inches shorter than Kate — so we have a more apples-to-apples comparison here, I think? (Not that anything about this is terribly scientific LOL…)
At the first glance, my gut was that these felt short. Not that they are actually too short! But they felt too short. I own two pairs of flare jeans at present, a years-old J.Crew pair that is clearly cropped and another by Joe’s that is so long it covers my shoes. My brain couldn’t compute the in-between, which is accentuated by the flare style (though I do think my frayed version softened the effect versus Kate’s hemmed look). I swapped my boots for sneakers (yes, I hauled multiple shoe options to the mall). The flat sole helped a bit? But still, I wanted the jeans to be either a smidge shorter or a tiny bit longer.
I had a moment of clarity when I put the wide-leg jeans I went shopping in back on. They are not the same length, as I had thought — they are a hair shorter! The looser fit and that hint of ankle made a huge difference to me. A breath! A break.
But mostly: As I wrote this newsletter and stared at these pictures, the Mother jeans that felt too short in person didn’t look too short in hindsight…? I’m laughing as I type this — a real-time recalibration of my thinking. It’s a reminder that fashion is incredibly subjective. And our eyes need to adjust! This feels especially true for denim, such a key part of most wardrobes these days.
As for what’s behind Kate’s switch? We’ve seen her stick to a narrow style lane this fall, opting almost exclusively for trouser suits on her dressier daytime engagements. The consistency, while great for her visual brand, has left fashion out of the conversation in many ways. These small denim switches are a way to keep us all talking. Here for it!
💭 What jeans are you loving this fall? I’m sticking with my wide-leg faves at the moment but mulling over these in-between flares, too.
(All Kate photos via Getty Images)
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I think this all encompasses of wearing what works for your body. I'm a 14/16 depending on what the brand is. I've tried on countless wide leg jeans and they all just make me look wider and frumpy. So although the fashion police say skinny jeans are dead I will long reign in them as they look the best on my body type. In the end I'm never really one for jumping on trends. But making an effort to really build a nice capsule wardrobe that will carry me forward.
The 90s girl in me is sooooo thrilled that wide legs are back in style. I love them forever and always. I found a pair of corduroy wide legs at a thrift store and I am happy as a clam.