I was on the platform at Queen’s Road Peckham this morning, when I noticed something about my surroundings: multiple people – myself included – were wearing rigid blue jeans. Stiff, selvedge denim – either straight-leg or baggy iterations – often styled with a funnel-neck jacket or hardy boots. Stiff blue denim, it seems, is experiencing a second life.
Don’t just take it from me. Earlier this week, premier It-girl and denim trend soothsayer Alexa Chung was pictured in Paris at the Dior Haute Couture spring/summer 2026 show wearing a pair of rigid blue cigarette jeans that can only be described as impeccable. Of course, most of the attention went to her shimmering black and blue beaded cape, but my eyes were firmly on the denim.
She’s not the only London girl repping rigid blue jeans. I’ve been spotting them everywhere, from the Northern line to the Toad bakery queue to Vogue HQ. Associate fashion editor Charlotte Rutter, who has the kind of wardrobe I’d personally die for, wore them to the office today (Citizens of Humanity, with the cuffs turned up), styled with a pale blue shirt and a soft brown knit. “I like that the rigid ones look a bit more done up and put together,” she says, adding: “It’s a nice mid-way point between comfortable and smart, without having to do a tailored trouser!”
Rigid blue jeans have, of course, been creeping up on us for a while now (last year, as Alice Cary noted for Vogue, denim sellers witnessed an uptick in selvedge styles). But it’s a style that is still gaining in popularity, having trickled down from the spring/summer 2026 runways more recently. “Rigid jeans specifically were a theme at Givenchy, Luar and more,” Alexandre Marain wrote earlier this year. “Seek out selvedge denim – which denotes a premium, reinforced fabric woven on a traditional loom, unlike mass produced jeans.”
For now, the days of loose and light denim are behind us – stuck somewhere between 2018 and 2024. As everyone smartens up for spring, only the most polished jeans will prevail.
