A longtime American wardrobe staple is suddenly coming back from the grave
With office wear getting more casual by the day and the emergence of athleisure, denim was decreed uncool by the standards of teens.
But there's recent evidence that teens may not hate denim anymore.
In Piper Jaffray's semi-annual "Taking Stock With Teens Survey," the research firm confirmed that teen girls are wearing jeans for the first time in a few years.
In a list of trends favored by upper-income females, "jeans" cracked the top ten - coming in at number 8.
And while teen girls love athletic wear more than ever, this chart illustrates that denim is seeing a slight revival.(This time last year, Piper Jaffray note, denim was at 9%, and it's at 14% this year).
Still, it's worth noting that jeans still do not rule the fashion sector for young women; their preferred trend is leggings (or Lululemon apparel), proven that given the option, they'd probably rather be comfortable.
This is a sharp detour from last year, when Piper Jaffray's survey indicated that athleisure was usurping jeans.
Several brands felt the mounting pressure of athleisure's constant rise.
Levi's CEO, Chip Bergh, had expressed concerned about the rising trend of athleisure wear, Bloomberg had reported. Additionally, Gap had heavily invested in its Athleta brand, Sapna Maheshwari at Buzzfeed had reported.
"My generation grew up wearing jeans - jeans are just a part of our life, and it still is, Athleta executive Nancy Green told Buzzfeed. "But this generation is growing up in yoga pants and activewear. So I think it's just going to be bigger and bigger and bigger for the future."
However, given how many athletic-wear trends still remained favorites amongst teens, the spike in jeans might not be indicative of a denim renaissance; it just might be indicative of how fickle the elusive Generation Z is.
Ashley Lutz contributed to this report.