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Keep reading to see if I can get away with using the term The Culture non-ironically.

Do you ever wonder what it meant when cargo trousers, joggers and all their hybrids offspring and corduroy trousers became cool? It meant that jeans and denim were on the wane. I have heard, on the excellent Care Tags podcast, the term post jeans being used.

That denim itself is a sub genre of style is not particularly surprising given their place in our cultural history. Whether you’re an ASDA price mum slapping your ASDA price denim clad arse or the guy undressing in a laundrette in the levi’s advert you have felt the universal undeniable appeal of indigo dyed cotton. Everyone has owned a pair of jeans and for so long jeans have been the staple wardrobe of everyone. Only old people don't really wear jeans and they're old.

But now we find ourselves in a weird place, the #influencers and #earlyadopters and all the other people that marketing executives profile aren’t quite so in to jeans any more. Not to say that selvedge denim is suddenly over, or that people aren’t buying in huge numbers, but the people who are creating which trends come next via their coolness are no longer wearing denim on their legs.

This is a big deal and it makes you wonder what is it going to be next, we're so entrenched in denim that other options are not as explored. Corduroy trousers certainly seem to have an appeal, the cargo trouser movement appears to have died off after a brief existence. It feels like there could be some freedom and a radical new direction, we’re at the precipice, a new frontier for trousers, who knows what the fuck is going to happen.

That does not mean that selvedge denim will suddenly lose its lustre but it will be more so used in iterations of various outerwear pieces or even shirting. Brands like Story MFG and Tender Co have started out with strong denim offerings and have slowly moved to other fabrics for trousers.

Tech Ninjas, Hip hop druids or whatever you’d like to call them are the group that started this movement away from denim. You wouldn’t catch Erollson Hugh karate kicking someone’s head off in a pair of dry selvedge denim in an acronymjustu video. The technical trouser is where the trend setters appear to have headed. Wool is nice, Gore Tex is better. The ideal thing to aim for is superlative levels of functionality that are possibly beyond the realms of requirement. Is there a clip instead of a button? Can you turn them in to shorts? Are they 100% resistant to radio activity?

Whether you are in to denim or tech wear you can still look to Japan for inspiration. For denim heads it’s the mills and the Americana and for tech wear shinobis it’s the dystopian future of anime classics like Akira and Ghost In The Shell as much as the rigours of the urban environment. That’s not to say that Japan is the only culture that either of these derive ideas from but I think that Japanese soft power and influence is a big deal culturally and for The Culture.

Athleisure, a often used term that has become a little loathsome has taken a swipe out of denim as well. Whether you’re an American guy in John Elliott or more in to Skepta wearing tracksuits or tracksuit hybrids has become popular to the point that everyone is comfortable wearing them in most situations. It’s acceptable to go round your grandma’s or to work in them whereas before an elasticated waist was considered unacceptable. We’ve broken new ground by not breaking in new denim.

There have been alternatives to denim before: Ivy League preppy style definitely had a thing for trousers and chinos, you don't wear jeans in the army, or the office for that matter. Don Draper didn't wear jeans and I don't think that James Bond would ever wear jeans. And soon, neither will you.