Denim-on-Denim Look is Making a Comeback

Under the leadership of fashion designers and celebrities from around the world, total denim is even making a comeback with great fanfare.

We loved it in the 1980s on Sophie Marceau, Lady Diana and Stéphanie de Monaco. The Denim-on-Denim looks also had its heyday in the nineties.

In 2001: Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears appeared in a matching denim outfit (dress and bag for her, suit and cowboy hat for him). This look was considered a real stylistic faux pas which is one of the most controversial fashion chapters in denim. But although what we also call “double denim” has had its downturns, it is now on the rise once again thanks to celebrities who have adopted it and the fashion designers who are revisiting it in their collections.

Check out Bubble Skirts: Fun, Flattering and Feminine , another fashion trend that has resurfaced.

Made in USA

“Denim-on-Denim is one of the fundamental fashion looks,” analyzes Thomas Zylberman, stylist and trendsetter at the Carlin Creative style office. “The trend is cyclical; it went through a slump before once again causing a sensation among American fashion icons and pop stars as well as Parisian actresses”. In 2023, Dakota Johnson already attracted all eyes at the Sundance Film Festival in an elegant total denim look consisting of a corset, a long coat and high-waisted pants. Since then, we lost count of the made in USA-celebrities (Kelly Rutherford, Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Bella Hadid, Julia Fox, Rihanna, Beyoncé...) who have re-appropriated the jeans and jacket or denim shirt combo.

From Marion Cotillard to Diane Kruger, French cinema stars have also succumbed to the lure of the web. We saw Camille Cottin in a total Dior denim look during Haute Couture Fashion Week Spring Summer 2023, and Marion Cotillard in a ruffled shirt in colorful red denim and matching Chanel jeans at the 2024 César nominees' dinner clearly stood out among others evening wear, more conventional. On April 15, Diane Kruger, also, posed in front of the photocall in bell-bottom jeans, cropped denim jacket, white shirt and polka dot tie at the Dior pre-fall show in New York.

If Ralph Lauren has made it a universal lifestyle, the designers in Milan and Paris have seized the new vein of matching materials. Maria Grazia Chiuri presents, season after season at Dior, her version of the Denim-on-Denim. Glenn Martens at Diesel works it in a Y2K spirit, Demna at Balenciaga likes to deconstruct it and Virginie Viard at Chanel presents it in denim jackets that are both cool and chic.

For styling tips, pair a jacket or a shirt with pants. But the most sophisticated ones can combine up to three or four pieces. Because beyond the simple pair of jeans, the idea this season is also to layer fewer classic basics. From the long skirt over pants to the trench coat or oversized blazer with miniskirt including bags, ties and even boots, everyone has their own piece.