Not All Millennials Adore Their Denim, It Seems

If you're under the impression that all Millennials care about is snapping selfies and destroying denim for a perfectly distressed look, you're sorely mistaken. According to a study by The NPD Group, "older Millennials" are more devoted to their denim than so-called "young Millennials," Women's Wear Daily reports. It seems that jeans aren't the teenage staple they once were, and are instead becoming more acceptable fare for adults.

The NPD study disclosed that denim purchases by 18 to 34-year-old Millennials leapt by two percent over the past year, but it is the shoppers aged 25 to 34 who are responsible for the increase. By contrast, the overall sales of denim dropped by five percent. NPD chief industry analyst Marshal Cohen pinpoints the consumer trend to the shift in personal finance, style, and even size that occurs when shoppers hit age 30.

"The older Millennials are coming into a bit of discretionary spending money and finding new reasons to replenish their denim wardrobes... It’s clear that the older Millennials need more attention. Why aren’t we seeing more age-sympathetic fits and styles? Baby boomers for nearly their entire lives have lived and loved in their jeans. They don’t give them up, but the market really isn’t catering to them either. You don’t run away from your most dependable market, but you can’t be a one-trick pony either,” Cohen reveals.

After all, denim attire has become much more acceptable for a wider range of occasions over the past decade. Whereas sporting denim to one's workplace or a cocktail hour might once have been considered taboo, the practice is now acceptable, if not expected.

Furthermore, denim is no longer considered a young person's game in the celebrity world and blogosphere. Denim is worn on the red carpet by celebrities with divergent styles from Hilary Duff to Eva Longoria, and is sported in designs from ripped boyfriends to dark wash skinnies by bloggers from Cupcakes and Cashmere's Emily Schuman to Hanneli Mustaparta.

At this point in fashion history, denim is an ageless commodity, whose reign over the wardrobes of the fashion elite seems to continue indefinitely. Indeed, 59% of NPD's sample Millennials admitted to adoring denim in its many forms, and why shouldn't they? Denim is perhaps the most versatile of fabrics, and jeans can be formalized or made casual, worn on a dinner date or for a meandering summer walk along the beach.

And if the prospect of being labeled an "older Millennial" after the age of 25 ruffles your feathers, simply remember that no one is coming between you and your Calvins (or J.Brands, or DL1961s) regardless of your calendar years. Denim is an egalitarian sartorial statement, so keep on rocking your bleached blue jeans no matter if you're 32 or 92.

Images: Getty Images (5)