Women's wide leg jeans are trendy again

Consumers are eager to ditch their comfortable clothes for jeans and crop tops. According to Jefferies latest note, low-rise and flare jeans have peaked consumers interest amid the pandemic. Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi breaks down the details.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: A little-known fact, Brian Sozzi may be all business on the top, but on the bottom he is wearing wide-leg jeans, and he's not alone, apparently. Sozz?

BRIAN SOZZI: Well, right now, full disclosure, wearing my Lululemon joggers. But yes, I used to be a big fan of wide-leg jeans, and maybe I should become more of a fan again of these jeans because that might be the look of this fall. Now that is according to Jefferies' analyst Stephanie Wissink, calling out a very interesting trend here in Google searches.

Google searches for low rise jeans have surged 91% over the past six months, and within that, some of the top styles that people are buying or they want are wide-leg and flare jeans, really taking me back to the late-1990s and early 2000s.

So that trend seems to be coming back into style here. I would suppose as people want more comfort, they're tired of buying skinny jeans. They just want to be comfortable in their life after the pandemic, seeing as they have been pretty comfortable inside their homes wearing loose-fitting joggers and other pants.

Now we're signaling two stocks that could be good plays on this, are American Eagle or an Abercrombie and Fitch, really two retailers in the mall, teen-focused, of course, or younger consumer focused, that have traditionally sold lots of jeans. Been very strong, especially into the back to school shopping season. This is something to watch ahead of Abercrombie's results later in the week. I suspect the jeans part of their business will have been very strong as people bought jeans in advance of going back to school.

But Wissink is noting, too, that this could start to spread. Because folks are buying new wide or flare-leg jeans, you can see consumers buy new types of tops, more form-fitting tops, so crop tops are starting to come back into favor with consumers. But also, sneakers. And I put that question to Foot Locker CEO and chairman Dick Johnson yesterday, because they had a pretty big pick-up in boys' and women's categories in terms of sneakers in the most recent quarter. Here's what he told us.

DICK JOHNSON: We had a tremendous quarter, a lot of strength, as you talked about, in our women's and kid's sneakers and our apparel. I truly believe that part of it is this cozy at home feel that people want to feel good about themselves in a new pair of sneakers, new piece of fleece, new t-shirt and shorts. Makes sort of the uniform feel complete. And certainly as we see our consumers heading back to school, as we see people going back to the office, they're going to go back and different uniforms than they left in. And certainly, I think our consumer wants to have the freshest kicks on their feet and the hottest pieces of apparel covering their bodies.

BRIAN SOZZI: And Julie, I think you called it. Really, the only thing we need to help fill out these looks are baby backpacks and pacifiers. So maybe that's coming up next. Google search, look out.

JULIE HYMAN: I mean, low-rise plus wide leg equals Raver in my brain, like that old aesthetic. But that probably dates me.

BRIAN SOZZI: Just get some chunky black shoes, some glow sticks, and we can get this party popping.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes.

MYLES UDLAND: Those are dangerous clothes.

JULIE HYMAN: I believe we'll have to ask Dick Johnson about the Vans sales as part of all of that as well.

MYLES UDLAND: Oh, man. Are Airwalks coming back, too?

JULIE HYMAN: Yes. Sure.

BRIAN SOZZI: Johnson said he was wearing UGG slippers, so at least for him, it's an UGG slipper lifestyle for right now.

JULIE HYMAN: Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Oh, what you missed, Myles. He did tell us that he was wearing UGG slippers, the CEO of Foot Locker.

MYLES UDLAND: I mean, I got to say, the-- watching him say the freshest kicks was-- I mean, I get it. You know, it's true. It's true for his customers, but I-- I don't feel that energy from him, but, you know, it's fine.

JULIE HYMAN: He's an UGG slipper guy, it's true.