Sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics, the one thing actually that every guy wears. Sometimes guys do it right, sometimes not so much. We’re talking about men’s jeans. Men wear jeans 90% of the time because they can wear them for almost any occasion: to go out with friends, to go to the movies, to go on a date. Jeans are the most versatile bottoms a man can get but we’ve seen some guys wearing some crazy jeans that should never be worn. So, today we’re going to fix that. We’re going to talk about the types of jeans there are.
If you have these seven jeans in your closet, that’s all you need to put together hundreds of outfits when you mix and match them with different tops. So, which style of jeans work best with your body? Well, by the end of this jeans fit guide, you’re going to have all the information you need!
We’ll go run through seven of the most popular types of jeans available which most retail stores will normally have in stock.
This guide will talk describe from the baggiest available through to the tightest available. These are the styles of men’s jeans you will probably find at any clothing store you visit.
Table of Contents
Men’s jeans styles
- Loose/Relaxed fit
- Boot cut
- Straight fit/cut
- Slim fit
- Slim Taper
- Skinny
- Spray on
The fit of jeans varies across different brands. This is just an average generalization. You might ask yourself: which of these looks best on my type of body?
Loose/Relaxed Fit
This will be labelled as something like “regular fit” as well. As the name suggests, these are pretty much the loosest fit in jeans that you can get hold of. There’s loads of excess fabric from the hips down to the ankles, which makes them very baggy around the thigh area and about the same down through to the calf. And the ankle openings on these are some of the biggest that you can find. This gives these jeans a bit more of a square shape and often you’ll notice the material folds quite a bit in this style. When walking in these jeans you’re going to notice that the material often lags behind you a bit and it kind of flops about as you move. For lots of guys, you could probably fit two of yourselves in these. Due to this wide-angle opening, some of your shoes are will be covered by the jeans.
Boot cut
Now, not all but in most cases, these are quite baggy but as with all the jeans on this list it’s going to vary depending on what brand you buy. They normally fractionally slimmer from the waist down to the knee but are still quite baggy as a whole, with lots of excess material the overall shape of the boot cut jeans is a bit like a triangle because they open up towards the bottom, giving in most cases the widest ankle opening that’s available with jeans. This is a design choice intended to ensure that you can fit boots underneath the jeans easily.
As you walk in boot cut jeans you’ll notice that there’s quite a lot of flapping fabric, especially around the foot area because that’s where it’s at the widest point.
Straight cut
Also known as “regular fit”. The overall shape of the straight jeans isn’t far off that loose fit. As the name suggests, these go straight down in quite a rectangular fashion. Overall, they’re just a little bit narrower than the loose fit jeans, so you’ll notice they’re quite a bit slimmer around the thigh and groin area, the material doesn’t quite hang so much around the knee and below the knee they’re slightly narrower than the previous two options.
That being said compared to some little options on this list, there’s still quite baggy. Because there is no taper down towards the ankle, they just go straight down, which leaves them a lot of time with quite a large ankle opening still. Nonetheless, you can start to see how some of these fits are genes are quite different from one another. You’ll notice that when you’re walking in the straight jeans compared to the previous two options, it kind of stays with your leg a little bit more but it’s still some folding of the fabric and it flaps around a little bit.
Slim fit
These are pretty similar to straight cut jeans but they’re marginally tighter and marginally more tapered as well. The top section of these does look quite similar to the straight cut because there isn’t loads of bagging material around this area. But what you will notice is that below the knee area there is a little bit of a taper. Not a great deal in most cases but there’s more than with the straight jeans.
Slim jeans on average are like a medium-size ankle opening. What you may also find from the slim fit onwards is that some of these jeans have stretch in them too to allow them to stay slightly more contour to the body. When you’re walking in the slim jeans, you’ll notice that they stay with the leg a bit more. Due to there being less excessive material, it doesn’t flap about the same.
Slim taper
Slim taper jeans are also known as carrot fit, and they’re known as carrot fit because the kind of shape represents the shape of a carrot. Wider at the top and then quite substantially tapering off towards the ankle. These are sometimes also known as just tapered jeans. However, you’ve got to be a bit careful because sometimes some jeans might be labelled as tapered, which are pretty baggy. This is just going to cover the slimmer tapered versions. Essentially, these fit like a slim jean throughout the thigh and then almost represents a skinny jean from about the knee area downwards.
There’s a little bit of room in the thigh area and then, when it comes to the lower area, you’re left with a pretty small ankle opening. Meaning that your shoes are quite visible, significantly more so than with something like a straight jean. You’ll also find that in most cases these are also made with stretchy materials in them, but they can sometimes be deceptively difficult to get hold of.
Sometimes you can find skinny jeans and slim jeans, but the slim tapered might be hard to find in retail stores. Therefore, it’s a good option to buy these online. Because they’re relatively tight around the calf area, you’ll find that these track you quite well. There’s no real flapping of fabric here at all!
Skinny jeans
Contrary to popular beliefs, skinny jeans aren’t always these jeans that are super tight all over. We’ll talk about ones that fit that description later. However, as the name suggests, these are a quite skinnier cut, very similar to the slim fit but tighter through the leg. This also includes tighter throughout the thigh area. If you’ve got a big bum, it’ll increase in prominence wearing these. Then, it’s also gonna remain tight down throughout the calf area giving one small quite small ankle opening.
Spray-on
The spray-on jeans, aka super skinny. Essentially, these are the tightest pair of men’s jeans you can get a hold of in the men’s section. These are normally really stretching and are basically skin tight throughout the thigh and then continue down to your ankle. These offer a tiny ankle opening where you can just about fit your feet through. Overall, they’re called spray on because they essentially look like they’ve been sprayed on. When you’re walking in these in particular from a distance with certain colours, you can kind of look like you’re not wearing any trousers, because these things grip to your leg, even more so than most of the skinny jeans.
Recommendations
It is true, you can wear whatever you want, but realistically loose fit jeans and bootcut jeans have been out of style for 10 or 15 years. Unfortunately, they don’t look good on anyone. They’re so big and baggy that they don’t look good on anyone. These won’t show off any of your natural assets. If you thought they’ll make your legs look bigger, we’ve got news for you, they do the opposite and they even hide your shoes. Nevertheless, you can find several ways to wear these.
Now if you’re someone who’s only ever tried to looser fit the bootcut jeans this could be your starting point. We’d maybe recommend just trying one of these men’s jeans to see how it is.
If you’re a slightly older guy, the straight cut provides you with a mature look. They aesthetically look better than the two baggier options. Also, if you’re a guy that’s carrying an extra bit of weight on you, this could be one to try!
Slim fit is a great choice for lots of guys. The name is only a reference to the cut of the jeans, not necessarily meaning that these only fit thin guys. These jeans look good on loads of guys even if you’re sort of average weight there’s a lot more shape to these compared to the previous ones!
Slim taper jeans are a perfect balance because the skinny jeans are a bit too tight for you and the slim cut is still a bit baggy, then these are the ones you might try. Although it might take you a bit of effort to find them!
Now the skinny jeans are a good option for skinny guys. If you’ve got really thin legs then this could be the one to try. Some guys are totally against anyone ever wearing skinny jeans and that’s understandable. A bigger guy shouldn’t bother trying these. But if you are someone who has got thin legs, then something like this on your legs (in a lot of cases) will look just like a pair of average guys legs in a pair of slim jeans.
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve become the master of jeans and will be able to guide your family and friends on what to wear. But if you need any help here you can find some advice on how to mix and match men’s jeans. Let us know what your favourite jeans are and if this guide helped you understand the differences between the different types of jeans.
