The expression mom jeans dates back to the late 1990s, but hit the pubic radar more widely in 2009, when US President Barack Obama was the subject of mild ridicule in the media for wearing this style of jeans during a baseball game. The term mom jeans came about because this more generic style of loose-fitting jeans was widely popular until the 1990s, and therefore, for younger generations, deemed to be something that only their ‘mothers’ would wear. Interestingly, the expression is used both in the US and the UK, even though mum is routinely used in place of mom in British English.