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Skinny vs wide legs – the new season trouser tribes
Two fashion editors sartorially battle it out to crown one style winner
Are you team wide, or are you team skinny? No, we’re not talking about chips, dress sizes or aeroplane seats. We’re talking trousers. The fashion world is currently divided on this issue.
After years of skinny jean domination, proportions are shifting and wide-legs are having a moment. But are they here to stay? And can they usurp the skinny’s effortless appeal? Here, two fashion editors fight it out…
Team swooshy
By Tamara Abraham
Fashion’s currently going through a wide-leg trouser moment, and I’m thrilled about it. With a ribcage-grazing waistline, and a leg wide enough to conceal a small child, they are reminiscent of the trousers worn by Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh and Coco Chanel. They are the original power-dressing piece, and continue to hold the same appeal today.
They’re flattering too, cinching the waist at its narrowest point. When I wear wide-leg trousers, I always get compliments. This is why I can’t understand why so many women I know are hesitant to try them. I team them with a shirt or T-shirt and a blazer (this conceals any muffin top). For a smarter look, try a matching waistcoat. I even wanted to get married in a bridal iteration of high-waisted trousers – alas, the specific pair I tried did nothing for me.
As for footwear? Like everything, they look great with heels, but more often than not, I’ll wear mine with trainers. It makes me nostalgic for my teenage years, when we’d cut the ankle elastic off our school tracksuit bottoms to turn them into grungy wide-legs. I’ve often heard it said that you shouldn’t wear a trend if you remember it the first time around, but I don’t subscribe to such ageist diktats. Especially when the result is both comfy and cool in equal measure.
The downside? They’re a nightmare in the rain, guaranteed to absorb puddles – and if we know anything about the great British weather, it’s that we should always be prepared for rain. Which, when I’m wearing wide-leg trousers, I am absolutely not.
And this is why I haven’t hung up my skinny jeans completely. You only need to look at the Saint Laurent and Celine catwalk shows to see how relevant they are, and they can serve as a palate cleanser after wearing wide-legs day after day – even the Princess of Wales and Duchess of Sussex agree with me here as both have been seen out and about in skinnies recently, even though they’ve both bought into the wide-leg look too.
We’ve reached a moment in fashion where trends are less important than individuality. Skinnies may be “out” and wide-legs “in”, but nobody’s going to call the fashion police if you’ve got your heart set on wearing a pair of leather leggings.
There is a more of-the-moment way to wear them – with a split at the ankle and a very high court shoe to elongate the leg. Retro trainers look good too. You could even take a pair of scissors to your old skinny jeans. Sling on an oversized shirt and boyfriend blazer and you wouldn’t look out of place at London Fashion Week. They also remain the easiest trouser shape to wear with knee-high boots.
The secret to success with both trouser shapes is in finding a balance – especially if you’re petite, as voluminous shapes can have a tendency to drown the wearer.
The formula is simple: skinny on the bottom = volume on top. Volume on the bottom = fitted on top. You can bend them a little, of course – I like a boyfriend fit blazer with wide-legs; it shouldn’t work but it does, so experiment a little to find combinations that work for you.
If you have one takeaway from this feature, I’d advise you to avoid the trouser middle ground. Bootcuts just don’t do it for me, and nor do low-slung waists. To carry off a fashion look, you need to embrace it wholeheartedly, and with as much confidence as you can muster. Go big or go home.
Team skinny
By Teo van den Broeke
I am no stranger to roomy trousers. Being a millennial (I was born in 1987), I was sartorially weaned on the baggy slacks worn by the pin-ups of the nineties. As a teenager I longed for the parachute pants sported by the girl group All Saints, the voluminous skate jeans worn by Limp Bizkit and the Diesel bootcuts I may have wanted to rip off David Beckham every time adolescent me saw him sultrily donning a pair in one of my Mum’s Hello! magazines.
With my 15th birthday money I bought myself a pair of Bleubolt “carpenter trousers” which were less trousers, more denim palazzo pants, and I was in heaven. The charm wore off quickly, however, when I saw a photo of myself wearing them at a family party and realised that I more closely resembled a denim-clad beach ball than I did Golden Balls.
To skinny jeans then, a love affair which I – like many people my age – embarked on with passion throughout the Noughties. In a pair of skinny jeans, it seemed, it was impossible to look like a beach – or any kind of – ball. Cool, thin people wore skinny jeans, from Britain’s Mods and Rockers to the Left Bank soignee of the likes of Serge Gainsbourg.
Hedi Slimane had garnered them with superstar style status when he showed his inaugural collection for Dior Homme in 2000, and the cultural zeitgeist followed suit. Kate Moss wore skinny jeans, Pete Doherty wore skinny jeans, The Strokes wore skinny jeans – and they all looked dangerous and sexy doing it. The likes of Jeremy Clarkson and Rod Liddle, on the other hand, continued wearing bootcuts and thus the die was cast.
You can imagine my consternation, then, when baggy jeans recently began to return to the runways. Slimane attempted to bring back the skinny look at Celine and was widely criticised, just as hype brands such as Balenciaga, Vetements and Gucci started showing voluminous trousers inspired by the Nineties and were lauded for it. The shift was also given youth credence on TikTok, when Gen Z kids started labelling skinny jeans wearers (aka millennials) as “cheugy” – the ultimate insult in their parlance.
But who needs hype when you’re in your 30s? Not me. My wardrobe remains full of slim-cut and skinny jeans. I’ve got a black pair from The Row which I live in, and my indigo Levi’s 511s are a perennial smart casual failsafe. My mindset was challenged recently, however, when brands which deal in a lower key form of elegance – I urge you to try out Le17Septembre Homme and Lemaire – started putting wide-leg trousers back on the agenda. Skinny styles were still there in the background, of course, but the wider look seemed to have moved from hype to hip.
What surprises about the trousers for this suit is that they’re a softer shape, but they’re also tailored. They’re cut with the razor edge of a Savile Row tailor and feature frame-flattering double pleats, but they’re roomy nonetheless and I think they look easy and relaxed. Wide trousers cut properly, after all, have the ability to slim the waist and accentuate the leg. I felt like a young Clark Gable wearing my new slacks, and the skinny trousers lining my drawers at home suddenly feel considerably less appealing.
So while I’m unlikely to dust off my palazzo skate pants any time soon, I must admit to feeling more inclined toward the prevailing easy mood. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the fact that we’re living through such turbulent times. There’s nothing like rising inflation and a crumbling climate to make you itch for comfort in your clothes, and there’s no denying that baggy trousers are considerably easier wearing than their crotch constricting skinny counterparts – though I draw the line at bootcuts, sorry G’Balls.
Teo van den Broeke is the editorial director of Soho House and his writing on style can be found at The Closet on Substack.
Choose your style
Three best for men: skinny
From left: Pleated grey, £395, Studio Nicholson; Pleated khaki, £39.90, Uniqlo; Relaxed fit wide leg jeans, £89, Cos
Three best for women: skinny
Pinstripe straight, £119, Mint Velvet; Slim fit wool, £150, Reiss; Cigarette jeans, £32.50, Marks & Spencer
Three best for women: wide
Baggy jeans, £300, Citizens of Humanity; Satin, £79, Ghost; Wool blend, £225, ME+EM