High-waisted jeans, a style that had been popular in the 1970s and 1990s, made a significant return to fashion in the early 2010s. The trend, embraced by celebrities like Rihanna and Alexa Chung, offered a vintage-inspired alternative to the low-rise jeans of the previous decade. High-waisted jeans were often worn with crop tops, creating a silhouette that blended retro and modern elements and appealing to a generation of consumers interested in '90s nostalgia.

The return of high-waisted jeans reflected a broader cultural interest in nostalgia and retro aesthetics, themes that poets of the 2010s explored in their work. The style's association with vintage fashion also connected it to the poetic interest in history and memory, from the ekphrastic poems of the era to the more personal excavations of family and past. The high-waisted jean, as a material object, became a symbol of the cyclical nature of fashion and the persistence of certain aesthetic forms.