Skinny means very thin or unusually slender. Although it is a highly popular word, marketers avoid it but label their “sassier” products differently because the word, skinny, reinforces the stereotypes of women and body images. Interestingly, some items go for skinnier whereas others do not.
Fashion items want to be skinnier. According to J. Crew Sells “Toothpick” Jeans, Because Skinny Jeans Just Weren’t Body-Negative Enough, ” J. Crew has sensed that a lot of women are pretty over the use of the word skinny to sell everything from highly unhealthy, chemical-filled cocktails to stretch denims or it’s just an err in advertising. This clothier found that skinny jeans are not skinny enough and chosen “toothpick” to label their slimmest line of jeans.
This is not the case for the beverage items. Pepsi introduced a skinny can in 2011 at New York’s Fashion Week. According to the Diet Pepsi ‘skinny’ can stirs up big controversy, Jill Beraud, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo said in a statement, “Our slim, attractive new can is the perfect complement to today’s most stylish looks, and we’re excited to throw its coming-out party during the biggest celebration of innovative design in the world.” Unfortunately, it was blamed for offensiveness immediately. Within a few months, Pepsi launches new fatter skinny cans in aftermath of controversy. It fattened up its diet skinny can “with a redesign that aims, perhaps, to distance itself from a controversy that bubbled up earlier this year.”
Do women still like skinny jeans? I first encountered this case to introduce myself. At the time, I thought of why marketers in different fields would refrain from using the word skinny. And for that reason, I pointed out that the target audience in each industry was different. Jeans with a slender, tight-fitting fit will be a demand for women who prefer that style. 2014 when this case was written was a time of skinny jeans worldwide. Numerous women even lost weight to wear the ‘toothpick’ fit pants. On the other hand, a slender-shaped, long-fitting cola can (which has even been described as having today’s most stylish looks) didn’t get a good response from people. Diet Coke isn’t just for those who want to lose weight or stay in skinny shape. Those who want the product can be just someone who keeps their weight healthy, a sugar hater, or even a diabetic. PepsiCo revealed the stereotype of “only a skinny body is stylish” in the shape of the product, which failed to take into account the various target groups consuming diet cola.
As I live in 2023, and as I experienced the inconvenience of wearing skinny jeans in 2014, I don’t think fashion items are skinny anymore. The first thing I thought about was simply, “Who wants to wear uncomfortable skinny jeans?” In fact, the sales of skinny jeans in the U.S. women’s denim industry dropped by less than 30% in 2021. (That’s the first time in a decade) And with the recent comeback of the ’90s fashion trend (called Y2K) Wide pants have become stylish. I took Consumer Behavior and Behavioral Economics classes, so I can now base my thoughts on, “Why don’t women wear skinny jeans?”
Humans are generally rational, but at the moment they experience something, they become animals, and the “Visceral factor” dominates them. Skinny jeans are pretty, but they are not comfortable. Women have to hold their breath or put in a lot of effort to wear pants (which usually makes them uncomfortable in the woman’s stomach, too). There have also been women who try to lose too much weight to wear the clothes. Women who have experienced this “pain” from wearing skinny jeans edit their experience to the bad side. This leads to a negative perception of the product itself. In addition, working from home is prevalent due to COVID-19, and women who do not have to wear uncomfortable pants have begun to look for wide and comfortable pants. As the fashion trend of the ’90s came back in the 2020s, the return of more stylish wide pants to consumers was also a major influence on this phenomenon. Wide pants are no longer tacky. So many women have come to look for wide pants instead of skinny jeans and experience the comfort they offer. After a “good experience”, people can’t go back to what they used to be “Normal experience”. This is because they hate losses more than gains. Would a woman who has experienced wide pants try wearing skinny jeans again? Wide pants are comfortable and even pretty. Already, it has become a product that perfectly meets consumer needs. The fact that skinny jeans are pretty is no longer enough reason to wear them.
The fashion industry is trying to make skinny jeans a fashion trend through fashion shows and influencers to retell new products. However, sales of women’s cargo pants (not jeans, but wide and comfortable in general) in the U.S. fashion market have increased by a whopping 81 percent this year, and Wide pants are still at the top of the sales rankings on Korean fashion platforms (Naver Shopping, Musinsa, etc.). Based on that, it seems that skinny jeans are no longer an attractive item for women. Just as skinny-shaped cola cans were criticized, skinny jeans are considered an item that does not consider women of various body types. Women no longer try to make themselves “skinny” to wear skinny jeans. Instead, they try to style themselves comfortably and attractively. If you are a marketer of skinny jeans, it isn’t enough to send the message to consumers: “Skinny jeans are stylish”, simply using pretty and thin celebrities. Instead, you should send the message, “Skinny jeans are no longer as inconvenient and still stylish.”