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Research on the trade of jean fabric shows that it emerged in the cities of Genoa, Italy, and Nîmes, France.

North America accounts for 39% of global purchases for jeans, followed by Western Europe at 20%, Japan and Korea at 10% and the rest of the world at 31%.United States consumers spent more than US$14 billion on jeans in 2004 and US$15 billion in 2005. US consumers bought US$13.8 billion of men’s and women’s jeans in the year that ended April 30, 2011 (~$18.4 billion in 2023), according to market-research firm NPD Group. 

  • Cigarette: Designed to fit quite closely, but not tightly, to the thigh area, with a less close fit to the calf
  • Cropped: Where the leg is cut to a lesser length, to somewhere above the ankle
  • Relaxed
  • Skinny: Worn to flatter the figure in the fashion of tight or close fitting
  • Wide-leg; or with cropped variant: The waist line rides up past the wearer’s actual waist, material below the knee is altogether away from the leg and descends as a straight line, standard type descends down to the ankle; cropped variant: the leg ceases at the lower leg mid-way down (or stops further down toward the ankle) 
  • Mom/Mum: Jeans which have a high waist (above the belly button), and are loose around the thighs, with a somewhat tapered fit. 
  • Straight-leg: Jeans which are the same width at the leg opening as they are at the bottom of the leg, making for a slightly baggy fit. 
  • Boyfriend: Often with a mid-low waist, boyfriend jeans have a baggy, “borrowed from the boys” fit. 
  • Flared, or bell-bottomed: Often fitted around the thigh area, then become wider from the knee down. 
  • High-waisted jeans were first popularized in the 1970s, but they have seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. High-waisted jeans are characterized by a high rise that sits above the belly button. They can be fitted, relaxed, or loose-fitting, and they come in a variety of colors. 

Low-rise jeans

Media reported in 2017 that the trend of low-rise jeans, famous in the 1990s and 2000s, was coming back into fashion due to a sparked by an interest in Y2K style.In the early 2000s, low-rise jeans were commonly seen on celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera, attributing to the Y2K style. In 2021, online searches for ‘y2k fashion’ had risen by 193%, showing that the fashion style was making a comeback, and low-rise jeans were becoming a common clothing item for teenagers and young adults. 

Low-rise jeans usually come 2–3 inches (5–8 cm) or more below the navel. Manufactured low-rise jeans have a shorter rise (distance between the waistband and crotch seam). The low-rise look can also be accomplished by letting jeans with longer rises fall lower than they are meant to. This is a less extreme version of sagging, which was popularized by male hip-hop artists in the 1990s.