Best Designer Jeans 2022

Research the best designer jeans, designer jean brands and denim shorts. Not all denim is created equal. Jeans are a type of pants or trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth, and the term jeans often refers to a particular style of trouser called blue jeans - but designer jeans don't have to be blue, and they are most certainly available in a wide selection of silhouettes.

Designer or popular brand denim jeans are fantastic with a bit of extra attention paid to fabric quality, sewing and trimming. That sentence is this guide's whole method: instead of naming a few pairs, it rosters the top designer brand jeans of 2022 - more than two dozen labels - because the year's denim story is a field of specialists. The linked brands are gathered in References & Further Reading below; the Photos gallery shows four of them.

The Roster, and How to Read It

The linked core of the roster runs: Frame, SLVRLAKE, Re/Done, Moussy Vintage, Ksubi, Citizens of Humanity, The Row, EB Denim, Nili Lotan, B-Sides, Khaite, Veronica Beard, Mother, Purple Brand, DL1961, Paige, L'Agence, Denimist and AG Jeans. Around them sit labels named in the same breath - GRLFRND, Chloe, Victoria Beckham, Alice + Olivia, Free People, Hudson and Rag & Bone - so the full field covers Los Angeles denim specialists, New York designer labels, Japanese vintage reproductions and luxury houses that treat jeans as a tailored garment.

Read the roster by specialty. Some labels compete on wash and distressing, some on rigid vintage-style denim, some on stretch and fit engineering, and some - EB Denim among them, with the jean shorts in the Photos gallery - on reworked and seasonal pieces. Do you have a favorite designer denim brand? The honest way to answer is by the pair you reach for, which is usually the pair whose fabric, rise and leg were specified most carefully. Learn more about the fabulous clothing category of jeans in the product guide.

Fabric, Sewing and Trimming

Fabric quality is the first divider. Designer denim starts with better cloth - heavier or more characterful denim, washes developed per style rather than per season, and, in the vintage-leaning labels, construction that copies mid-century jeans down to the stitch type. Moussy Vintage and B-Sides, both pictured in the gallery, built their reputations on exactly that fidelity, while the stretch specialists compete on recovery: denim that moves all day and still returns to shape.

Sewing and trimming are the second divider, and the easiest to inspect in a store: even stitching at consistent tension, cleanly finished seams, real hardware that ages rather than peels, and pocket placement drawn for the body rather than the size run. The women's jeans guide and the women's designer jeans guide cover fit and construction in depth, and the ripped jeans guide covers the distressed end of the field.

Silhouettes of 2022, and the Mom Jeans Note

Designer jeans in 2022 spanned the full silhouette map at once: skinny fits held on at the stretch labels, straight and relaxed vintage cuts led the fashion conversation, wide legs and flares returned at the designer houses, and denim shorts carried the summer. That breadth is why this guide rosters brands instead of crowning one cut - the best silhouette of 2022 depended on which label's version of it you wore.

One clarification the roster itself insists on: Mother, the Los Angeles denim label in the gallery's company, is NOT to be confused with mom jeans - the high-rise, relaxed-taper style the term page defines. The pun is unavoidable and the distinction is real: one is a brand, the other is a cut any brand can make. Trade readers can continue to wholesale women's jeans, and the cross-year best jeans collection holds the other years' lists.

Denim as a Social Category

Jeans are also the most social garment in this section: a designer pair is photographed, tagged and argued about more than any tailored trouser. Learn more about fashion industry social media in the terminology section, and when you are ready, find out how to get more follows on social media - you deserve to be a fashion influencer, and a great pair of jeans is a reasonable place to start.

This roster is kept as a historical 2022 record: brand lineups, washes and prices have changed since, and each label's own site - linked below - is the place to check its current denim. Thank you for using the Apparel Search website.

Photos