The Rise of the Wide-Legged Pant

For most of my life, I’ve been a skinny-jean advocate, however, a recent shift in pant design has caused my allegiance to sway. A few years ago, my brother and I were standing in front of a wall of jeans in the back of Bluenotes, when he paused and stated that his ideal pant “doesn’t actually touch [his] leg.” This idea was appalling. It was 2014, and my teenage wardrobe was built around the necessity of wearing skin-tight, high-waisted American Apparel jeans every day. Flash forward to earlier this year: I was standing in the change room of my local thrift store, staring at the collection of pants I’d selected from the racks. They were cropped, high-waisted, and notably, wide-legged. Upon trying them on, I realized that none of them actually touched my leg, and, worse, I loved it. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d purchased a pair of skinny jeans. I remember the sad departure of my Topshop Joni jeans in the eleventh grade and the gradual disappearance of my skinnies-with-knee-slits a few weeks before graduation—mostly, I remember buying boyfriend-cut jeans, straight-legged trousers, and cropped flares. Sidney Morgan-Petro, retail analyst at trend forecasting firm WGSN, told The Washington Post that the widelegged style is entering the mainstream of women’s fashion, describing the trend as having “pushed past the initial ‘early adopter’ stage in 2016 & 2017 into more mass commercial appeal in 2018.” This shift in consumer preference can be understood through an analysis of micro and macro fashion trends: micro-trends are seasonal shifts in fabrication and colour, whereas macro-trends are gradual shifts in proportion and silhouette that occur over years. The modern skinny jean became the choice for female consumers in the mid-2000s. For Gen-Z-ers, skinny jeans feel like an impermeable style basic however, they’re just one of many major trends in the last few decades.

In reality, pant styles shift approximately every ten years, allowing them enough time to become symbolic of the decade in which they’re popular—think bell bottoms in the ’70s, tapered jeans in the ’80s, and boot-cuts in the ’90s. The skinny jean is just one pant macro-trend in a line of design shifts over the century. There are a couple of reasons this particular style has become popular in recent years. The trend is, in part, a reaction to shifts in other recent changes in fashion macro-trends, including footwear. For example, chunky heels and bulky sneakers are better suited to looser silhouettes, and so pant design has changed to accommodate for the new demand. Moreover, the wider silhouette provides practical physical comfort in a socially acceptable form that appeals to the athleisure crowd, who prioritizes functionality in their clothing. The wide-leg allows the wearer to move freely, while still, aesthetically, evoking a timeless elegance reminiscent of 20th-century fashion icons, like Bianca Jagger, Diane Keaton, and Julia Roberts. After staring at my wide-legged reflection in the mirror of the change room, I swallowed my pride and purchased the pants. The skinny jean might not be dead as of yet, but it certainly has wide competition.

by Claudia Rupnik