North Korean dictator in tune with Gen Z vibe, bans skinny jeans. Also out: the mullet, and nose and lip piercings
- Generation Z TikTok users have it in for skinny jeans, mocking them as an outdated hangover from the millennial era
- North Korean’s Kim-Jong-un has outlawed them – and the mullet, slogan T-shirts, and nose and lip piercings – as decadent symbols of a ‘capitalistic lifestyle’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Gen Z have something in common: they both hate skinny jeans.
“We must be wary of even the slightest sign of the capitalistic lifestyle and fight to get rid of them,” Rodong Sinmun, the North Korean state newspaper, said, quoting the totalitarian head of state.
Kim also outlawed other “foreign” items such as ripped jeans, slogan T-shirts and nose and lip piercings.
This is not the first time Kim has railed against the possible influence of Western pop culture and fashion on the young in North Korea. K-pop bands from South Korea have also been banned in the country, for fear that they will corrupt the public.
Kim, 37, is not the only one to have a dislike for skinny jeans, one of the last two decades’ most popular trends in fashion.
Earlier this year, Generation Z users of short-video app TikTok began posting funny videos attacking skinny jeans as an outdated remnant of millennial fashion – mocking them in countless posts that have since gone viral.