It’s fittingly gross; the fluorescent-lit catacombs of Manchester’s M&S trousers-fitting dungeon. Pair number seven of today somehow pooled around my feet as I contemplated my life choices. Why had it come to this?
Legs burning from faux squats because yes, putting on 34 denims constitutes a squat session, I surveyed my sad kingdom of fabric wasteland and trousers mountains. I was here on a mission. I’d ask you what the hell for, but you’re living it too: we were on a quest to find the best high street jeans.
It’s no easy feat, mainly because nearly every pair of denim trousers designed for the male sphere at the affordable price-point are either synthetic nightmares or devoid of life altogether. So, armed with the keywords “affordable”, “natural” and “long-lasting” (plus a crippling fear of another denim disaster,) I enlisted my coworker/friend Jamie to help me test out every British high street store’s denim section to find the cream of the crop.
It all started with Jamie’s texts.
He’s always chain texting me pictures of obscure Italian denim brands he can’t afford or dick pics from Girls Anonymous Facebook groups, so I should’ve seen it coming. Picture this: his crotch. Not in a “nice underwear” way, more of a “crime scene photo of your crotch ruining your expensive jeans” way.
We’ve all been there, his jeans had suffered serious blowout during a meeting with an important client. Six months old. “Mate there has to be something better than this happening to me every few months” was the caption. A legitimate cry for help if I ever saw one.
Our unwitting tag-team jean experiment was born. Twelve stores, thirty-four jeans and a very unfortunate incident involvingCOOKIE JAR later, we had put every high street brand through its paces to find truly great jeans at an affordable price. Or at least, that was the goal.
TLDR: Are there any good jeans on the high street in 2025? Don’t sell your soul just yet. Keep reading.
Before we go any further, I should probably define what “great jeans” actually means in the context of this article. To clarify, I’m not expecting Japanese selvage priced at £400+ to magically appear on the high street. I don’t think they ever will.
But outside of that small denim designer bracket, there’s really no excuse for horizontal tangents and badly constructed trousers with zero effort put into their design. Marks & Spencer are doing it right at the moment. If you’ve somehow avoided noticing their aggressive transition into excellent quality apparel outside of their famed knitwear, let me be the first to say; they’ve got you sorted.
As someone who fully embraced_the denimpendium roughly ten years ago I spent way too much money on supposed hype pieces that fell apart after two wears. Despite having jeans that retail at £100+, M&S’s selvedge jeans are on another level. The one I’m wearing now is a 99% cotton 1% elastane blend, which gives just enough stretch to allow you to move like a human rather than transforming into a sausage after an hour.
It also weighs in at about 13oz which feels really nice considering so many jeans now are basically paperbags. Where M&S really shine though is in the details; chain-stitched hem and waistband, double-stitched pocket corners and bartacks at all the stress points. Things you normally reserve for jeans that cost double the price.
They retail at £65 which isn’t cheap, but considering they’ve been constructed to actually last years rather than months I think you’re really getting your money’s worth. As for the fit; straight fit is great; timeless enough that you won’t feel behind the times next season but not so slim that you look like you raided your dad’s closet. There’s also a surprising amount of room in the thigh which is refreshing considering most “straight” fits on the high street are basically mens Skinny jeans with the waist stretched out to accommodate for how we actually move nowadays.
Even James; my coworker’s boyfriend who basically works at Self Edge til confirmed he owns a pair. “Shhh don’t tell anyone I said this on the raw denim forums but these M&S jeans are better constructed than some £150 trousers I bought last year.” If James says they’re any good, they’re any good. It’s no secret that Uniqlo do amazing denim. If you read anything about jeans and haven’t tried their selvedge collection yet, stop reading this and go put some on.
They sell Japanese denim expertise at prices that leave you wondering why you’re even bothering shopping elsewhere. I could wax lyrical about their amazing selvedge jeans all day but for brevity’s sake, I’ll keep it simple. They are amazing.
We both own their regular fit selvedge jeans in a straight cut, which is superb; mercifully avoiding the tapering issue most other brands seem to force into their straight fits. The fabric has a great dry hand feel to it and actually softens with wear as opposed to just getting weird and saggy. I’ve had a pair for around 3 years now and they’ve faded excellently in all the right places; nice honeycomb creasing across the knees, pocket fade on the rear and some subtle whiskering through the thighs that would make most denim snobs cry.
They’ve held up impressively to weekly wears and monthly washes with minimal colour fade which is admirable at any price point, let alone £50. Downsides? They only do regular and slim fits!
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So unless you’re looking for housepaint skinny jeans run, do not walk away from Uniqlo straight away. The slim fit is slimmer than you think going in, so great if that’s your thing, but I’d recommend going with their tailor’s stretch if you’re looking for something a little more forgiving. Tried to impress a girl I liked in college with the skinny jeans and nearly destroyed my package.
ARKET are, without a doubt, the dark horse of this race. Who honestly thought H&M’s upper-class cousin that smells like pretentiousness would come out on top? Well I guess we were all proved wrong.
Regular Jeans In rigid denim from ARKET retails at £77 which is certainly not cheap, but considering they were the jeans that felt and acted the most premium; I felt they were worth it. Plus at that price point, you’re barely breaking the bank compared to some of the adulthoods I’ve purchased through the years. 100% cotton so expect zero stretch here, which is great or terrible depending on how you feel about actually wearing in your jeans.
These will need a good breaking-in period; we’re talking up to two weeks of uncomfortable wear as the denim starts to mould to your body. Best parts? Hinges.
Copper rivets. Chain stitched waistband. Real selvedge outseam.
Cut that feels contemporary but doesn’t autumn into any “fad” territory that you’ll hate next year. There’s zero jank hardware, no weird excess stitching or details. Just grown-ass denim that lets the materials speak for themselves.
Which brings me onto Zara. Prepare yourself. Zara make actual good jeans now.
Full disclosure alert: I’m probably going to lose half my readership with that statement alone. Preach all you want about support small businesses making amazing quality pieces etc. etc. but at the end of the day Zara have upped their game significantly with their Premium Denim Collection and it’d be foolish not to mention them. Offering 100% cotton selvedge jeans in a slim fit for £45.99 they hit surprisingly high marks across the board.
Will they last you 5 years of constant wears and neglect? Probably not. But you also aren’t spending close to £100 on them so I don’t see why you’re complaining.
Construction feels surprisingly good considering the price. The weight of the fabric is alright but not game-changing; I’d estimate around 11-12oz? They do fade quite quickly so if you enjoy thats your look.
Personally, I hate wearing jeans that look like I’ve been chugging quesadillas for a month. However where Zara really shine is in the fit. That almost imperceptible taper from knee to ankle compliments pretty much every leg type I’ve seen wear them; crafting a silhouette that looks just as good with Comfy Thrash Vans as it does with a nice pair of leather oxfords.
Pro-tip; if you buy these, make sure you have absolutely nothing white around for about a month. Colour transfer is real guys. Sadly there were a couple of losers in this investigation.
Topman (by which I mean the husk of a brand currently owned by ASOS) really is the worst it’s ever been.
Going from being my go-to for budget denim that at least kinda looked nice to literally falling apart the second you wear them. I tried on three pairs and somehow went from a 32 waist to a 36 within minutes.
Barely any cotton in the fabric they just felt like tissue paper and two of the three pairs had stress lines across the thighs from them just sitting there. River Island were equally as disappointing; looked great on the hanger but autumn apart once you actually wear them. Incredibly unsubstantial fabric, poor construction and honestly the strangest fit I’ve ever encountered; tight in all the uncomfortable places and baggy where it actually matters.
Lastly we come to COS. Now before you start sending me hate mail in the comments they weren’t great but worth mentioning for the vast amount of people that autumn into “Not skinny, not slim, just straight” sizing. Sporting a lovely straight-fit that runs at £75 these were some of the better jeans I tried on during my research.
The fabric actually feels heavy, probably clocking in around the 14oz mark. And boy do they know how to construct a pair of jeans; from the chain-stitched hem to the thick hardware that actually looks like it can take some abuse. They even do a better job at offering long inseam options than most brands which is huge if you’re like me and not exactly shortolkshorts tall.
COS jeans are slightly on the relaxed side compared to your typical highstreet offerings, which is welcomed among a sea of painfully tight jeans that hipsters and “influencers” think we’re still living in 2010.
