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Justin Bieber Is the King of Baggy Jeans

Here are all of the pop star's finest denim moments—and what you can learn from them.
Justin Bieber Is the King of Baggy Jeans
Photographs: Getty Images; Collage by Emily Agjmurati

Allow me to cook here for a second: Justin Bieber is our era’s best jeans-wearer. Sure, fellas like James Dean and Steve McQueen deserve their place in menswear canon, and I'm not saying that The Biebz is on the same level, necessarily. But take a look at his most notable fits—not exactly a short list—and his ginormous jeans are impossible to miss.

For years now, Bieber has remained committed to his denim silhouette du jour, the bigger and baggier the better. Unlike some of his chart-topping peers, he avoids skinny jeans like the plague—ditto the groovy high-wasted flares made famous by guys like Harry Styles. Even when he’s shirking the forecast in one of his patented weather-agnostic fits, his devotion to pavement-skimming, kicks-obscuring jeans, piling over his skate shoes like a precariously stacked mound of pancakes, remains constant.

Bieber rarely deviates from his preferred light wash, but the details are where his inner denimhead is revealed. He’s been spotted in Our Legacy’s trompe l’oeil digital denim jeans, zip-off cargo jeans from Cherry LA and Supreme, and too many Balenciaga joints to name—not to mention a sea of denim from his own smiley-face-emblazoned Drew House brand. (He’s also fond of “regular” straight-fit jeans, worn several sizes too big, and cinched at the waist with nothing but a shoelace.) The only corner of the denim universe his journey hasn’t led him to is the outer reaches of the raw denim plains, but at this point, it’s only a matter of time.

Whether his humongo dungarees are taking a backseat to bug-eyed shades and kooky jewelry or the pièce de résistance of a sublime coffee run get-up, they’re always there to remind you who’s king. His eye for proportion pays tribute to some of yesteryear’s greatest fashion influencers—David Beckham’s small-shirt-big-jeans era comes to mind—and it’s no use trying to steal his crown. Instead, find your own preferred fit, stick with it long enough, and critical acclaim—and maybe even millions of fans!—will come. Below, we aggregated 15 pictures of Bieber at his denim-clad best to help you do just that.

Looking for a pair of Bieber-approved jeans to kickstart your own journey? Start here.

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

  • Cool guys wear zipup hoodies. Cooler guys wear their zip hoodies with monstrous jeans. What Bieber really owns here is...
    thecelebrityfinder/Bauer-Griffin
    1/15

    Cool guys wear zip-up hoodies. Cooler guys wear their zip hoodies with monstrous jeans. What Bieber really owns here is the proportions, masterfully incorporating a cropped hoodie to balance out his signature sag.

  • Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
    2/15

    Even at the 2021 MTV VMAs, Bieber stuck to his fashion formula accepting the Artist of the Year award, in an appropriately oversized blazer with a hoodie and jeans. It's a fancy event, right?

  • SMXRF/Star Max
    3/15

    Bieber at his most dirtbaggiest and swaggiest.

  • Ricky Vigil M / Justin E Palmer
    4/15

    Our Legacy's digital denim jeans aren't really distressed—the effect is a trompe l'oeil trick of the eye—and that's only, like, the third most interesting thing about 'em.

  • Gotham
    5/15

    Are the salt and vinegar potato chips part of this outfit? Well, they're not not part of it. But the real showstopper here has to be the Supreme convertible denim cargos. Just a flick of the zip and Bieber's in Jorts Town noshing on some kettle chips in the sun.

  • JOCE/Bauer-Griffin
    6/15

    Summer fur? Why not! This all-time unseasonal fit is entirely about the nonsensical choice of outerwear, but in Justin's world, behind every great jacket is a baggy pair of blue jeans.

  • BG002/Bauer-Griffin
    7/15

    Before the furry summer fit, Bieber was rocking a beanie in August along with an aloha shirt and billowy jorts.

  • Kevin Mazur/AMA2020/Getty Images
    8/15

    Tiny hat, big jeans.

  • BG020/Bauer-Griffin
    9/15

    You can't tell by the tent he repurposed as pants, but Bieber is, in fact, wearing shoes here.

  • Gotham
    10/15

    Red solo cup and blue distressed jeans—that's color theory, baby!

  • Ricky Vigil M
    11/15

    In a rare move, Bieber goes with a mid-wash jean without much in the way of distressing. Denim deviations aside, it's all about the iridescent puffer and buggy shades, anyway.

  • Bellocqimages/Bauer-Griffin
    12/15

    A little throwback to '80s sportswear.

  • Gotham
    13/15

    Creamy white jeans and tonal brown layers looking like a tiramisu.

  • Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin
    14/15

    Cherry LA's paint-splattered jeans have the right amount of splotches and dribbles to make them stand out without treading too far into the sauce. That discerning restraint turns out to be the best option for a simple grey hoodie and clean white kicks.

  • Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin
    15/15

    The components may be simple, but the swerve is all in the proportions—peep that insanely cropped sweater!

Gerald Ortiz is a style commerce writer for GQ covering fashion, grooming, and occasionally lifestyle. Previously, he was the style writer for Gear Patrol and the managing editor at Heddels. He graduated from the University of California, Davis with three degrees, none of which directly relate to fashion (so it... Read more
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