SHANE WATSON: If you're over 50, here's the one pair of jeans guaranteed to give you great legs (and make you look younger!)
What do all women and Jennifer Aniston have in common? We all love a bootcut and we were never happier in our jeans than during their heyday, in the early Noughties.
Oooh and didn't we look good? Lean thighed and long legged – because, of course, bootcuts allow the wearing of heeled boots. Low, cuban-heeled styles in the day, edgier snakeprint ankle clingers after dark. You could wear your Converse with your bootcuts, and we did, but this golden era of jeans was all about giving us extra leg without the bother of wearing actual heels or wedges (the downside of regular flares).
And now it's spring and it seems we want a bit of that leggy feeling.
Marks & Spencer have reported sales of its Eva bootcut jeans (£25, marksandspencer.com) are up 124 per cent from last year, and there's a bootcut frisson in the air. For the first time in a while I feel like slipping on some heels and snip snapping out to cocktails in tidy bootcuts under a smart statement coat.
Still you may be wondering, what about the wide leg jeans I've just got used to? And how about the barrel jeans I've literally just bought because of all the exhortations to get into the new shape as worn by Sienna Miller?
Well, wide legs and flares are going nowhere: the relaxed loose leg shape is still the number one denim shape in town and keep wearing them if you are already. I'm still an enthusiast. I like the way baggy flares flow and drape and make your top half look neat, especially in a crop jacket.
So this development is not a U-turn, more of a variation on the flares theme – a finessing of what we're already doing.
Alexa Chung wears bootcut – slim to the knee, gently widening towards the ankle – jeans to the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize in 2021
The Duchess of Sussex was spotted wearing dark bootcuts at this year's Invictus Games (hers were £211 by the designer Veronica Beard)
Because bootcuts – slim to the knee, gently widening towards the ankle – are essentially modest flares (designers are even calling them 'skinny flares' this time around) they're just a neater sort and, yes, a more wearable option. (I'm not going to say more flattering, though I'll concede it's easier to feel polished in a crisp dark bootcut.)
But the real point is you no longer have to choose. Fifteen years ago there was one 'In' shape of jean and embracing it was critical to updating your look. We snapped into skinnies because not to would have been fashion death and then we loved them.
We experimented with bell bottoms, got used to boyfriends and high rise Moms and now we're at a place where denim is the foundation of our wardrobes, across the board, and we need more than one pair, in more than one style.
Right now you can own a straight style, a wide leg and a bootcut and wear them all in the same week.
Lots of things may have kick started this return to slim flares. Beyonce for one. There's a theory that the Western looks she's been wearing – including bootcut Levis – to promote her country album Cowboy Carter has had an influence and her tour, starting in April, is only going to fan the flames.
The Duchess of Sussex was spotted wearing dark bootcuts at the Invictus Games (hers were £211 by the designer Veronica Beard) and the California brand 7 for All Mankind has reported an uptake in bootcut sales which they attribute not to a Western styling mood but the fact that they're flattering 'elongating the silhouette'.
For me it's that, plus the California Gwyneth Paltrow effect. When you feel like polishing up your look, bootcuts (high waisted, medium dark wash, crisp) plus a belt, boots and a blow dry, feels like a super easy solution.
The most popular shade of M&S's Eva style is a light indigo but medium indigo is the more expensive-looking choice and I might go for the crease front slim flare (£45) simply because it's smarter. Otherwise H&M do a good medium dark bootcut (£24.99, hm.com), and if you feel more comfortable in mid rise that's ok too; Zara have a selection in dark and medium washes (£29.99, zara.com).
A belt is the new finishing touch that makes the difference; then just add a cream crew neck sweater and a blazer or a plain shirt and a trench.
If you're a New York fashionista you're currently wearing yours with a polo neck, a big blazer and black pointy boots. If you're Bella Hadid, you're wearing dark denim bootcuts with a tucked in leather shirt and cowboy boots. From now on these are our elegant upgrade jeans.
