By ERIC WILSON

　　Skinny jeans are back.

　　“After you wear them, you don’t ever want to boot-leg pants again,” the designer Mark Badgley had promised me.  This spring Mr. Badgley and his partner, James Mischka, have been buying skinny jeans from labels with odd names like Acne and Nudie.  The sudden popularity of those styles is most remarkable because they are skinny to an extreme.  Some are even hard to put your foot though.

　　A possible reason for their unlikely appeal is that the skinnier the silhouette, the easier it becomes to project another personality.  But that, and the tight fit, can also be cause for discomfort.

　　“I have a saying that is ridiculous, but true,” said Johansson, the creative director of Acne.  “That is, ‘Jeans are the perfect canvas for everything.’ Pop culture, from the 50’s with Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, and every interesting subculture that has happened since then, is built on an image of jeans.  It is the most generic product and the most interesting product at the same time.”  There are high-concept skinny jeans from Rick Owens with seams that trace quadriceps.  There are skinny jeans from Alexander McQueen that are stained to appear as if they had grown mold; these are sold with a disclaimer that says, “This denim may leave traces of color when it comes in contact with light clothing and furnishing fabrics.”  The Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane, who gave wings to the louche aesthetic with his springtime homage to British bad boy rocker Pete Doherty, offers whiskered rock jeans in pale pink and pistachio, for ＄580.

　　Karl Lagerfeld’s new collection includes skinny jeans sewn in Frankenstein patches, and John Varvatos designed a stytle that is a hybrid: roomy up top and strangling around the calves.  Some feel nice for a few moments, but after walking a block they become claustrophobia-inducing. 
“Some guys are just not comfortable being that well defined,” said Alexandre Plokhov, the designer of the men’s wear line Cloak.  “But skinny jeans are pretty much a backlash against the boot-leg cut.  When all the masses go right, a few people will go left.

　　For his store in the trendy Soho neighborhood, Mr. Plokhov produced 200 pairs of a skinny style made of Japanese selvage denim with straight seams and trouser pockets that seem to magically eliminate unsightly bulges.  At ＄390, they had nearly sold out.

　　The market for denim styles with escalating prices has become so sophisticated that some companies claim to be bale to predict where the skinny trend will lead.

　　“Somewhere between October and next February, it will hit all parts of the country,” said Jeff Rudes, the president of J Brand, which expects to ship more than 140,000 pairs of skinny women’s jeans this year, with leg openings as narrow as 25 centimeters around.  “This cycle is then good for 18 months to two years. It can’t get any narrower than this without stopping blood flow.