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Here’s the big new news about white jeans: white, ecru or cream jeans really come into their own either side of summer – so if you have a pair, do not put them away now.
Don’t get me wrong; white trousers in summer are just the ticket, but they’re ordinary.
The bright days of September and October are when white jeans – or the more forgiving and all-weather-friendly ecru – really deliver the stylish, cut-above-the-average vibe that’s the whole reason we bother with them in the first place.
When the leaves are falling off the trees, you can carry on wearing your ecru jeans with loose boyfriend shirts (the look of this summer) and add a blazer; switch to a long-sleeved T-shirt or crew neck under a short suede jacket; or wear a hip-grazing funnel-neck sweater in any colour from cream (for the stealth wealth look) to brown, red, olive, navy or a breton-inspired stripe.
Ecru jeans plus a lemon yellow or biscuit coloured cardigan, buttoned up and accessorised with gold jewellery and low heeled slingbacks, is the cool look for warm evenings.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in white jeans and T-shirt with black leather jacket and accessories
Wear the shape and the length that works for you, as long as they’re not skinny on the leg, or capris, anything goes.
Then, as the temperature drops, white jeans get the Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy treatment – the 1990s fashion icon whose style is once again top of the fashion chart – teamed with a dark navy sweater or shacket and black pumps or trainers.
Ecru jeans look great with brown, with cream, with grey – with a gold lurex top, a navy pinstripe jacket, a tobacco coloured twinset.
In fact most things look better and newer with white on the bottom rather than the standard fallback for autumn/winter – black trousers.
I wore black trousers solidly through the 1990s and into the Noughties, so I know how easy it is to reach for them on a Monday morning and a Friday night, but now black seems dull and – with the exception of velvet and corduroy now and then – I never wear black trousers because, bottom line, I find them ageing.
I’m treading cautiously here. Me+Em, the label that’s established a reputation for the best trousers and jeans on the High Street (albeit at a higher price point), have just launched a ‘trouser lab’ and several of the styles on offer are black.
There’s a market for black, of course: it’s safe. It’s flattering. It does the job. But for those of us who once spent their working days in black suiting and their nights in LBDs, it feels like black is the past and black holds you back and stops you experimenting with colours.
The new colour rules – for us Fifty Plusers – is ecru and cream for chic; brown for luxury; olive, mustard and navy for all round everyday ease.
And white trousers have the extra bonus of belonging in that category of clothes that look expensive and high maintenance but aren’t (ecru jeans aren’t thanks to a 30 degree quick wash cycle).
Even as we’re starting to tire of the quiet luxury trend, white jeans are going from strength to strength.
If you don’t already own a pair it’s important to stress that these are not a fringe trend for skinny women.
Zara has as many shades of whiteish jeans online as there are on the Farrow & Ball paint chart.
In my local M&S, in the first week of September, I counted four separate styles of white jeans (just one in black) including a decent high rise wide-leg, in ecru (£36, marksandspencer.com); a ‘smart wide-leg’ pair in white (£45) with a permanent front crease which look more tailored, and that bit sharper; and an ecru mid-rise barrel jean (£30).
Barrels (unfortunately named; what they really do is gently curve from hip to ankle) have been riding high in the charts ever since Sienna Miller hit the town in her capsule collection M&S X Sienna Miller ivory barrel jeans, back in 2024, and they’re worth a try.
They look more tailored than regular jeans and the seaming tricks the eye so they’re surprisingly flattering. But if in doubt a straight wide-leg is the best bet. Fitted on the hips never on the thighs is the rule, but not too floppy and baggy.
Some structure (hence the popularity of engineered and barrel cuts) is what separates our jeans from the Gen Z-ers.
The fashion crowd swear by Arket’s Lupine flared jeans (£85, arket.com) flared in the leg (rather than from the knee), just enough to look elegant now rather than a 1970s redux. We’re all about looking forward now.
