Believe It: This Is the Trend That Will Replace Leggings for Millennials

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The athleisure trend, in all its trainer-filled glory, has had a grip on the fashion industry for a while now, with scores of brands capitalizing on the demand. But as Business of Fashion reports, there's a different market that's growing more quickly than athleisure for the first time in several years: denim.

The numbers prove it. "According to data from retail technology company Edited, the first half of 2017 saw the women's jeans market grow by 79% compared to the first half of 2016," BoF reports. "Athleisure leggings, by comparison, grew just 35%."

For more insight, Business of Fashion tapped Dio Kurazawa, the denim director at trend-forecasting company WGSN. "It's not that athleisure is going away," he told BoF. "It just means that folks are choosing not to have six different pairs of Lululemon tights and they're opting to settle back into their denim. Millennials are driving the changes."

Specifically, millennials are gravitating towards the vintage denim trend. Massimo Ferrucci, the jeanswear president of VF Corporation (which owns Wrangler and Lee), explained the trend to BoF: "The younger consumer is attracted very much by Americana, by originality and authenticity, by product that comes from the archive." In fact, the trend is so huge that it prompted the launch of the new Levi's Authorized Vintage collection, consisting of 50,000 old jeans that the brand purchased from the resale market. With that said, are you ready to swap your leggings for vintage jeans?

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Related: 11 Ways to Do Double Denim and Not Feel Like a Fool

Erin Fitzpatrick
Senior News Editor

Erin got her start as a Who What Wear intern over 12 years ago—back when the site only published a single story per day. (Who What Wear has since increased that number twentyfold.) She graduated magna cum laude from USC, which is how she ended up moving to Los Angeles from her hometown of San Diego. In college, she also interned at Refinery29, where she was promoted to editorial assistant and then assistant editor. After nearly three years at R29, she came back to WWW in 2016, where she currently holds the title of senior news editor (as well as the unofficial title of resident royal expert—in case you haven't noticed her numerous Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton stories). She spends her days trying to incorporate her idols, Anna Wintour and Roger Federer, into as many stories as possible. Outside of work, she loves tennis, classic rock, traveling, and smothering her dog with affection.