The skinny jean cycles back

The skinny jean tip-toed its way back onto runways for Autumn/Winter shows giving us a glimpse into style for the cooler months earlier this year. The style has been largely panned as 'millennial' and 'stale' and a 'bit on the choking-my-crotch side' by younger fashionistas, who prefer the self-explanatory balloon fits and the it-sounds-so-weird-we'll-never-wear-them mom fits.

Local clothing brand Outfitters (right) and homegrown jean label Genie (left) have catered to the demand for easier-fitting jeans.Courtesy Genie/Outfitters

Skinny jeans alighted on our collective style consciousness sometime in the mid-'00s, a pleasant - for the time - shift from the super-flared, lowrise styles we had ushered in with the new millennium. Even in Pakistan, where flared jeans had provided a nice complement to the kurtis and kameezes along with the baby tees and form-fitting t-shirts we sometimes wore, the silhouette for lowers became more and more streamlined.

But soon, the jeans went from slim, to skinny, to jegging; each iteration of denim becoming more constricting, even when it was mostly spandex. We all wanted to look like Kate Moss, but not all of us have the legs, or let's be honest, the accessories, to look like Kate Moss all the time.

If you were glad to see the back (but tbh, really the front) of skinny jeans, sit up and take note: the fashion overlords have hinted lightly, and occasionally blatantly, at the return of the style. And you know it's only inevitable that retail brands and global markets will soon follow suit.

Miu Miu did a total callback to the early aughts with the center seam (left), while Balenciaga looks to a well-tailored winter for all (center). Alexander Mcqueen hints coyly at a return to skinny by belting up a more relaxed style (right). Courtesy Miu Miu/Balenciaga/Alexander McQueen