Unless you’ve been buried under a pile of slim-fit selvedge for the last few years, you’re probably aware that baggy jeans are back. Chalk it up to ‘90s nostalgia, the recent vintage craze, or just a natural reaction to the thigh-squeezing silhouettes of the 2010s: big, billowy jeans are ubiquitous right now. Menswear’s bleeding edge might’ve spearheaded their return, but in 2024, baggy jeans are so prevalent you can find ‘em pretty much everywhere. I should know—I’ve spent umpteen hours looking for the perfect pair, and after cycling through the requisite number of weathered Levi’s, I landed on a left-field favorite. They aren’t vintage, or rare, or from a cult-loved small-batch denim label: they’re from Abercrombie & Fitch, and they’re a whopping 90 bucks.
For anyone reared on TRL re-runs and Sbarro slices, Abercrombie needs little introduction. But while ‘crombie’s revival has been well-documented around here, the brand’s bluntly-named baggy jeans might be the best reason yet to bracket your skepticism and get on board with the mall brand renaissance. (The irony of finding era-appropriate jeans at the place that first birthed them isn’t lost on me.)
Let’s start with the basics. Sure, the jeans are wide enough to earn their name, but with all due respect to the king, wearing them hardly makes me feel like Bieber. (A good thing, at least for me.) The rise sits somewhere in the sweet spot between low and high, so they land right at the hips. But what I appreciate most about them is what they don’t have: stretch. Like any good pair of vintage jeans, they’re made from nothing but pure 100% cotton, with nary a hint of lycra in the mix. Who needs the artificial enhancements when the comfort of your pants lies in how much fabric you have to move around in?
Abercrombie sells its baggy jeans in a Crayola’s box worth of hues, but the best options are the lighter washes, which conjure a ‘90s vibe without binding my outfits to the decade’s aesthetic codes. I’ve worn them with everything and anything: a bomber jacket from the ‘60s, Adidas kicks from—or inspired by—the ‘70s, an oversized topcoat from the ‘80s, Armani blazers from the ‘90s.
Yes, they’ll score your brownie points with Gen Z, but at the end of the day, they’re just good jeans (but, you know, bigger). Their job isn’t to elicit raised eyebrows or double-takes—it’s to help you get dressed without a whole lot of extra thought. At less than $100, I’d say they’re a total no-brainer.
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