Monday, November 19, 2012

Pants, Pants, And More Pants (The U.S. Meaning!)


It seems that wide legged trousers are now trendy.

This is strange to me, because I don't dress in-time with fads. Which is obvious because I've had a pair of wide leg pants in my wardrobe every year since high school. But then, I'm the girl that was wearing Japanese designer-inspired fashion in junior and high school and vintage full-skirted dresses, and men's sport jackets and gabardine shirts in college. I just find fluid wide legged pants to be the comfiest thing to wear when it gets cold (and when it gets hot!) I am notoriously cold all the time in winter and wear tights or long underwear almost daily. Wide leg trousers give me the room to layer up and still look stylish. Below, evidence from my pattern archives:

High School/College


McCall's 5867, Vogue 1986, McCall's 7550, Vogue 2938, Vogue 2853, McCall's 2684
You can see that in College I also played around with silhouette, where I had a few pairs of "carrot" pants, where they are fuller with pleats at the top and narrow considerably down the length. In fact, that last pattern in a stable knit was a favorite pair of mine. I would love to find that pattern again, they were the closest I've come to harem pants.

Beyond/College:


Simplicity 6529, Vogue 2532, New Look 6836

My love of these structured yet loose wearing trousers obviously comes from the glamorous film stars of the 1930-40s; Garbo, Dietrich, Hepburn, and Lombard. Check out this link at Fashionable Forties for fabulous images of women wearing the many varieties of trousers worn at that time.

2 comments:

JuliN said...

I love wide-legged pants and wore them all through high school and college too! I had a pair of black rayon challis "carrot pants" I wore for all my band concerts. Looking back on it, not my best look. I still rock my harem pants though - lol.

Kerry said...

You have style--that's knowing what you like and what looks good on you despite the fads of the time. Happy Thanksgiving!