During the ’90s, celebrity denim wasn’t a trend—it was a reflex. Actors, pop stars, supermodels, and tabloid fixtures wore jeans the same way they lived: a little messy, largely unbothered, and adverse to overthinking. Today’s fixation on Love Story-era minimalism and the enduring mythmaking of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy only underscores the idea that a great pair of jeans can do as much personal-style work as anything else.
They were just as casual back then, but in the ’90s, jeans were fair game everywhere—not just airports, nightclubs, and pap walks, but literal red carpets and starry premieres—worn straight and belted, baggy, low-slung, high-waisted, or in full double denim with zero irony. ’90s celebrity denim defined an era of instinctive style and genuine confidence, setting a standard we’re still trying (and mostly failing) to recreate. Keep reading for the ultimate guide to denim inspiration.