Skinny jeans are out: Gen Z mock Millennial fashion trends on TikTok

Millennials are the new Boomers and skinny jeans are done. Here’s why the skin-tight denim is now a sign you’re out of date.

Every generation has its fashion cringe moment and right now, Millennials and their tight denim are in it.

The once cool kids of the culture have been officially declared outdated by their younger brethren, the Gen Zs, with their skinny jeans, side parts, crying laughing emojis and reaction gifs now deemed out of fashion.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow for the generation born between 1981-1996 who’ve been culturally dictating what’s hot and what’s not for over a decade.

Suffice to say they are having their own ‘OK Boomer ‘moment and they are triggered.

If you part your hair on the side, you’re basically ancient according to Gen Z.

THE WAR EXPLAINED

Gen Z has been slowly stripping the power of youth from Millennials for more than a year through a long-running feud on TikTok, Insta reels and Twitter.

It’s been a war of attrition, with Gen Zs mercilessly mocking Gen Y as a bunch of whining old people obsessed with coffee, rose all day, fur babies and Harry Potter.

They’ve declared war on side parts — the 2021 equivalent of a comb over (gasp) — and skinny jeans, ridiculing all the style markers Gen Y set.

“I know Gen Z really loves the middle part but a teen commented on one of my tiktoks, ‘You’d look better with a middle part’ and that is RUDE and WRONG but also I don’t remember ever being this aggressive about which hair part is the universal Best Part, maybe I missed it,” wrote one Millennial on Twitter.

Things escalated again this month after US culture writer Jenny G Zhang, 28, controversially tweeted: “Anytime I see someone use a reaction gif, I immediately know they’re over the age of 33.”

The tweet blew up with reaction-gif responses and close to ten million people viewed it. Millennials were not amused.

Millennial fashion is the subject of vicious memes by Gen Z.

Skinny jeans are now a telltale sign you’re old.

WHO CARES?

All of this is easy to write off as just trivial online rubbish. After all, every generation loses their time in the sun and while it’s not not funny to watch, what does it even mean?

Well, in this case, it’s a sign of the heft Gen Z consumers are starting to wield — if you wander down Pitt St mall in Sydney, you can already see it.

As the most digital, globally hyper-connected generation, Gen Zs are the next big cohort of shoppers and brands want their dollars. And if they don’t respond with the right products and values, they risk being ‘cancelled’.

According to a report from WP Engine, Gen Z represents about $150 billion in buying power worldwide and in 2020, accounted for 40 per cent of global consumers.

They’re finishing high school starting to enter the workforce, and their online habits are being carefully watched. As the new economic force to be reckoned with, if Gen Z are dissing Millennial consumer habits, retailers are paying attention.

There are no winners in this war between Millennials and Gen Z.

DEATH TO TIGHT DENIM

Step into H&M, Zara or any denim section in Westfield stores and you’ll see the power of Zoomers at work.

Once ubiquitous, skinny jeans are being quietly shifted into dim corners, making way for wide leg jeans, mom jeans, kick flares, straight jeans, even bootleg jeans.

The shift has been visible on runways for some time but Gen Z probably drove the nail in this denim coffin.

Aly Brun, 16, from the Central Coast said jeans “are out of fashion” and wouldn’t be the first thing she’d choose to pull out of her wardrobe.

“There’s just so many more options like flares and boyfriend jeans and I just don’t think anyone my age really goes for skinny jeans anymore,” she said.

“I also find skinny jeans are quite uncomfortable to sit down in but when I wear flares I can do and eat whatever I want.”

But Millennial Alanagh Hunt, 28, from Sydney won’t be giving up her skinny jeans, a “staple” in her wardrobe.

“I love skinny jeans, I wear them all the time,” she said, while walking through the very same Pitt St mall.

“I just feel more comfortable in them, they’re very soft and they also look really good with heels and boots.

“I definitely think Gen Z have it wrong, I’ve had these jeans since 2012 and I’m so obsessed with them.”

“Sorry but I’d have to disagree, these aren’t going out of fashion.”

The Gen Z v Millennials war is being fought online through videos and memes.

WHAT GOES AROUND

Feeling personally victimised by the attacks not only on their jeans but the hurtful claim parting your hair on the side makes you a dinosaur, Millennials have attempted to fight back with their own salty videos accusing Gen Z of basically being vapid twats.

“You know who wore middle parts? My parents’ generation. Ditto mom jeans. In your effort to look cool you are emulating Boomers. Let that sink in,” one Millennial fired back on Twitter.

Meanwhile, as Boomers wish they could use the internet to get on board this schadenfreude train (OK Boomer), Gen X who are almost solely raising Gen Z remain blissfully unscathed.

This hardy generation survived perms, MC hammer pants and a decade of hipsters telling them they’re old. And after parenting the generation who ate Tide Pods, they’re ready to let loose in some comfy pants.

*NB for Boomers:Tide Pods are a line of laundry detergent pods produced by Procter & Gamble. In early 2018, they became the subject of the Tide Pod Challenge on TikTok, in which teens filmed themselves eating the soapy pods then daring others to do the same. The challenge went viral, causing serious health concerns and forcing the company to issue statements not to eat their product. Some teens cooked the pods before eating them.