Denim is trending again and it has nothing to do with jeans

The Y2K era is in full swing, especially with the revival of denim. The strong and durable cotton-blended fabric has been gaining attention for every reason; right and wrong. The most recent one is due to the GAP campaign featuring KATSEYE, a Los Angeles-based girl group. The campaign features the six members; Daniela, Lara, Manon, Megan, Sophia, and Yoonchae, dancing to the early 2000s hip-hop anthem Milkshake by Kelis. The campaign bridges nostalgia with a fresh edge as we can spot the gang wearing low-waist jeans. The choreography is an homage to Gap's incredibly directed ads over the years, while also including references to KATSEYE's own iconic dances like Gnarly and Debut. 

Shortly after KATSEYE's collaboration with GAP, Addison Rae released her campaign with Lucky Jeans, sporting low-rise jeans. Rae, who has long been a fan of Lucky Brand jeans, has served as creative director on the Addison Ultra Low Rise Flare, a reimagined version of a look from Lucky Brand’s early 2000s archive.

Last month, Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle advertisement made waves worldwide thanks to the innuendo of their ‘Great Jeans’ marketing campaign. While she may have attracted most of the attention mainly for wrong reasons, American Eagle’s campaign did get everybody talking about ‘Jeans’. 

Just moments after Sweeney, Beyoncé came through with her Denim Cowboy campaign in collaboration with Levi’s. This campaign sees the singer’s influence on the attire featured in the campaign, with rhinestone denim jackets and rhinestone jeans being front and centre of the new collection. In the past, Levi’s has also collaborated with Deepika Padukone, tapping into her style that popularised the denim brand in Padukone’s home country of India.

The unique marketing for denim has always been one of the reasons why the favourite bottomwear staple gains the attention of the masses, as denim has always left a mark with memorable ad campaigns. In 1980, Brooke Shields starred in a Calvin Klein ad, making the line ‘nothing comes between her and her Calvin's’ popular. 

Guess Jeans' campaign from 1993, featuring Drew Barrymore, boldly took on the conservative 90s. The campaign saw Barrymore embracing a man, wearing just a bra and acid-washed cut-off shorts. 

Versace promoted their 1995 ‘legs for days’ campaign with Claudia Schiffer and Nadia Auermann; top models of the 90s, posing in only jeans and pumps, which was enough to get everyone talking. 

One of the 90s campaigns that popularised jeans was not even about denim. In 1993, Cindy Crawford showed up for a Pepsi ad, dressed in a pair of simple blue jeans and a white tank top, a look that has been an off-duty staple ever since. 

This year has already seen the revival of famous denim trends from the early 2000s, such as denim-on-denim, bootcut jeans and low-waisted pants. Ad campaigns are now adding more heat to the popularity of this evergreen material. GAP, Levi’s and American Eagle are proof that, denim is about to be everywhere; not just in closets but also in conversations.