Breaking news: Katie Holmes went swimming in New York City — in mid-December,  no less! No, not at SoHo House but in a pair of very, very large jeans. Tremendous jeans, even. The actress has long been at the forefront of the wide-legged pants movement but with this pair of huge pants, Holmes has truly outdone herself. 

No longer leaning hard into quiet luxury alone, Holmes instead let her smokestack-shaped jeans graze the city’s asphalt as she crosses the street in a white t-shirt and angular grey blazer-style jacket, with a slouchy leather bag on her shoulder and a Playbill in her hand.

Her Dawson’s Creek styling mostly saw Holmes wearing a straighter leg and relaxed fit more in line with vintage GAP than the JNCO jeans of the era. Now, though, Holmes is showing us that she was a ‘90s skater girl in a different life, going off these extremely wide, baggy jeans, at least.

These jeans and the other wide-legged pants that Holmes has been wearing in recent years are not necessarily a throwback. It’s all about knowing which tops to wear them with: for Holmes, that’s usually a tighter tee with a cardi, or something as visually compelling as the asymmetric jacket she’s wearing with these supersized denim bottoms. 

Because of these styling choices, Holmes’ very, very, very big pants always look contemporary and sophisticated. She has an innate sense of how to balance large pants with small tops, which could look uneven if done wrong but Holmes make work with generous outer layers and chunky handbags.

Even if at first glance, it looks like she might have stolen her big brother’s pants, Holmes also makes it clear that she knows how to style cartoonishly huge pants, the resulting look leaning surprisingly sleek rather than ‘90s-themed costume.

Holmes was the girl-next-door style icon for those of us who grew up envying her effortless spaghetti-strap tanks and relaxed jeans — straight out of a dELiA*s catalog! — and with her gargantuan jeans, she’s reminding everyone that she never got off the throne.