Sept. 16, 2025

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White Jeans

WORDS IRINA GRECHKO

WALES BONNER

White jeans hit the sweet spot between timeless and practical — especially when everyone else comes dressed in blue.

White jeans broke out of their seasonal box this fall. The denim trend is no longer just a warm-weather fling, but now part of this season’s key jeans stories, rubbing belt loops and sharing rack space with the equally trendy barrel-leg and ‘70s flare silhouettes.

On the fall runways, the look cropped up in delightfully off-kilter ways. In New York, Marc Jacobs sent out comically oversized trompe l’oeil-esque pairs, cementing white jeans as a statement piece rather than a summer basic. Across the Atlantic, American-Mexican designer Willy Chavarria highlighted white denim’s streetwear potential with a distressed style in a relaxed fit (modeled on Bad Bunny’s brother, Bernie Martínez Ocasio, no less) during his Paris Fashion Week runway debut.

Then there is Celine’s new creative director, Michael Rider, who offered the opposite extreme. His runway debut featured jeans so cigarette slim they puddled right into sneakers like second skin.

MARC JACOBS

CELINE

Off the runway, the case for wearing white jeans past Labor Day is just as convincing. The look fits neatly into fall’s Ivy-League-adjacent revival — cue cropped sweater vests, striped polo shirts (sometimes doubled up), and leather oxford shoes — as well as the renewed interest in nostalgia for Americana and countryside codes.

More than just fitting in with the wider prep movement though, white jeans offer a sharp, refreshing contrast that cuts through the heritage layers, ground prints like plaids and checks in modern-day reality, and add intention to looks that (in more earnest styling interpretation) could read as “old money” cosplay. What’s more, white denim works beautifully with fall’s most wearable palette: chocolate brown, burgundy, navy, hunter green.

After years of TikTok-fueled micro-trends, fashion is recalibrating and leaning into “forever” pieces over #hype. With quiet luxury still whispering in the background, white jeans hit the sweet spot between timeless and practical, offering a palate cleanser amid autumn’s rich hues — especially when everyone else comes dressed in blue.