The fashion pendulum is in full swing around campus.

That’s right. Tapered jeans are striking back, but this time they have a totally tubular name: skinny jeans. And oh yeah, the acid wash stayed in the Goodwill pile when people threw the jeans there in the early ’90s.

The jeans that once graced Duran Duran concerts now prance down Rodeo Drive and Dan Allen alike. Essentially, the form-fitting jeans follow the body’s shape and tighten around the ankles.

“Trendy students look to the celebrities for styles, and Mischa Barton and the Olsen twins coined the new skinny jean fashion,” Laura Newlin, a senior in communication, said.

Newlin did point out waif-like celebrities exhibit the figure of about 1 percent of the female population, so the jeans don’t exactly look great on everyone [insert warning here].

“They look best on long, slender people,” Newlin said. “They flaunt long, thin legs and don’t present other body types as well.”

The jeans can be worn a plethora of ways, but most either tuck the jeans into boots or slide into a pair of pumps.

“We don’t live in a big, metropolitan city, or Colorado, so wearing them tucked into boots looks a bit out of place in good, old Raleigh,” Newlin said.

Monica Adamczyk, a senior in sociology and communication, studied abroad in Poland last spring and said the style was popular in Krakow back in 2005.

“You usually see fashion trends in Europe before you do in the United States,” Adamczyk said. “People are more willing to take a risk with their wardrobe than they are over here.”

The British made the jeans popular from across the pond in the booming metropolis of London and “it” girls put the style on the map. Sienna Miller, queen of bohemian chic, wears the jeans and it didn’t take long for her Hollywood counterparts to don the denim either.

From Jessica Simpson to Nicole Richie, photographs of celebrities sporting the style line magazine racks in supermarkets and bookstores.

“Celebrities may have made the jeans popular in the U.S., but it’s still all about how a person wears them,” Adamczyk said.

Newlin agreed and said she knows what really made the jeans a hit in the states.

“Sex sells — always has and always will,” Newlin said. “Tight jeans are tight jeans, no matter what their shape is at the bottom.”

Greg Smith, a senior in business management, seemed enthralled by the concept of these pants.

“How do they get those on?” Smith asked. “That’s what I want to know. But, hey, the tighter the jeans get, the more guys have to think about during class, so I guess I don’t really care how they got on.”

Luckily for Smith, the style is here to stay, at least for a couple of seasons. Jordan Rix, a junior in business management, works at Beanie + Cecil in Cameron Village. She said the upscale boutique would be carrying the style soon.

“We’re getting the Joe’s Jeans version in soon,” Rix said. “Our buyer just went to New York City and said they were really big there.”

Rix said skinny jeans would certainly be popular well into the summer. Newlin agreed, attributing the style’s popularity to the jeans versatility. She said the style allows women to easily dress them up or wear them causally.

“I definitely think they will be popular into the spring as well,” Newlin predicted. “The skinny capri is going to be really hot.”