How to wear wide-leg pants

Susan Wagner — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:03:25 -0500

Wide leg pants are back, after years of skinny jeans, and women everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief, not so much because we felt compelled to squash ourselves into pants that were designed for twelve year old girls, but because the skinny trend made it so darn hard to buy pants that didn't fit like sausage casing. This fall, we will finally be able to find some trousers that actually allow us to have thighs! Thank goodness.

Wide leg pants are a nice option for women with large chests, because the leg on the trouser will balance your top half. They are also a good choice for women with wider hips and thighs because the leg can camouflage that width. But there are a few tricks to wearing the new wide leg pants, and if you don't do it right, you'll wind up swimming in fabric, and while that may be more comfortable than having a pair of skinny jeans cut off the circulation to your extremities, it isn't very flattering.

Stick with pants that have a flat front. We've seen lots of models in pleated wide leg pants; the pleating across the front adds more volume, which makes for an exaggeratedly wide leg. For normal women, this is a terrible look. A wide leg is fine, but be cautious about pants with pleats across the front; pleated pants make even the slimmest woman look heavy through the middle. Instead, look for trousers that fall straight from the widest part of your hip.

Keep patterns simple and colors neutral. A big bold pattern on a pair of wide leg trousers will overwhelm even the most substantial hourglass figure; keep it simple with a subtle tweed or plaid, like the trousers pictured here, which have a very subtle gray plaid. And stay with neutral shades -- wide leg trousers are NOT the place to experiment with color. The shape of the pants is enough of a statement on its own. Elie Tahari 'Larisa' trousers, $114.99 at Bluefly.

Keep the hem on your wide leg trousers on the long side -- if you are petite, consider wearing these with a slight heel, to give you some height. At the least, pair them with a pointy shoe, to really maximize your your leg line. For shorter legs, look for trousers with a slightly higher rise (a waistband that hits closer to your belly button) -- this will help create the illusion of longer legs. Prefer to wear your wide leg trousers with flats? Go with the longest possible hem, one that hits a quarter inch from the floor.

Pair your wide leg pants with a simple, sleek sweater or blouse, something without a lot of volume. Balance the menswear styling of these trousers with a floral print or a slight ruffle, but don't go overboard; a big flowing top over wide leg pants will leave you drowning in fabric.

Not really feeling the love for the wide leg pant? Neither is Angie at You Look Fab. And she's got a few other things on her list of The Worst of Spring and Summer 2008.

Need help making your neutrals less blah? WearIt shows you how to work caramel for fall, including a really beautiful pair of wide leg pants by Tory Burch.

Wardrobe 911 has suggestions for what to wear to a wine tasting (wide leg pants! go figure).

Susan Wagner writes about style at Fashion Find and ParentDish, and about everything else at Friday Playdate. Have a pressing style question? Email her at fridaystyle.susan@gmail.com.

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How to wear wide-leg pants