Characterised by an ultra-high waist and tapered legs, the mom jean has been around since the late 1960s, but it took almost three decades for the relaxed cut to be catapulted to popularity. We can’t help but shout out two major contributors to this surge: Monica Gellar and Rachel Green on Friends, whose ’90s-tinged outfits (many of which featured mom jeans) still haven’t dated twenty-five years on—as someone who’s on roughly their 50th rewatch of the show, I can confirm this as fact.
This particular jean remains one of the duo’s most relevant fashion choices, as easy to style in 2023 as it was back then. I wear my favourite mom jeans (a £30 pair from H&M) and straight-leg jeans interchangeably, finding that both achieve the same goal of making an outfit feel uncomplicated, and their simplicity means I can treat them as a neutral and build all kinds of looks around them.
I’ve also found that the majority of mom jeans I’ve tried hit right at my ankle, allowing me to show of whichever shoes I’m wearing that day, and the narrow cuff works with a broad range of footwear. Boots, sneakers, heels, sandals—the list goes on. Similarly, the waist-cinching fit goes just as well with crop tops as with a tucked-in cotton shirt.
Need further proof? Scroll on to see six effortless mom jean outfits that breathe new life into this ’90s denim trend.
