People sometimes link the rise of low-rise jeans in the early 2000s with the rise of them in the early 1970s. This is reasonable to do, because before the early 2000s that was the only time they were popular.
The graph below shows the occurrence of "low rise jeans" in newspapers from 1960 to 2026.
Yet popular did not mean ubiquitous.
In 2001 low-rise, flared jeans became ubiquitous among juniors.
This year is the fall of fashion, because fashion becomes tainted by something decadent and untraditional in this year.
In 2004 the word "mom jeans" is coined. In 2008 the word "dad jeans" is coined. These words describe jeans which are not low rise.
Yet as low-rise, flared jeans were ubiquitous in 2001, this is the pot calling the kettle black. If something was universally in fashion seven years earlier, it can no longer be used a touchstone for what is in fashion then.
While it is true that low-rise, flared jeans were in style in 2008, fashion had become decadent. Low rise jeans were never a 'fashion' at all, but a fall into decadence. Hence the word "mom jeans" and "dad jeans".
Twenty five years after the rise of low rise jeans in 2001, female celebrities seem to avoid wearing pants at all. An image search of Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea from 2026 does not reveal one picture of any wearing pants. On the off chance that any of them did wear pants, they would either 1) bare their midriff, 2) cover their waist line.
So there you have it. The fall of fashion was in 2001. Levi's never introduced a single, so-called 'high rise' style of jeans for men in the 2010s. For women they created names such as "wedgie jeans" and "ribcage jeans" in the second half of the 2010s. Together with "mom jeans" this solidified their status as something unusual--by people wearing 15 year old models--the barbarians at the gates. Fashion was long dead.
You may disagree with me now, though one day you may understand. I prefer to look at it positively, that is that there are at least three to four great decades of 'modern fashion' before the 2000s. And if you are not a man, you may never understand. The complete loss of fashion for us is devastating. Clothing is one of the most refined hobbies there is. It can still be achieved by becoming a transsexual woman, but that is the only way there is for a man to experience fashion in the last 25 years. Men's fashion had become completely undynamic and unresponsive by 2001.