A Dispatch from the Front Lines of the Pant Leg Wars
A Dispatch from the Front Lines of the Pant Leg Wars
On barrel leg jeans, thrift store price gouging and a surprise product recommendation.
I recently attended a dinner party in which skinny jeans arose as a hotly-contested subject of debate. One friend adamantly insisted that skinny jeans are due for a comeback, while I shot it down as a ridiculous proposition. How could skinny jeans possibly be making a comeback when I only got rid* of my last few pairs in 2019? (According to the timeline I live in, 2019 was only two years ago instead of five.) Earlier that day, I had even glimpsed a few people in the wild wearing skinny jeans and clocked how strange and intimate it was to be able to see a stranger’s calf muscles flex as they walked. Are we really prepared to abandon all dignity and return to era?
I think this conversation illuminated the painfully obvious fact that everyone is on their own timeline when it comes to trends and that’s totally okay. If the skinny jean renaissance is indeed upon us, then I am happy to get out of everyone’s way. Conversely, what pants silhouette am I actually excited about? Barrel leg jeans, of course. This style seem to be a pretty big “thing” in the slow fashion community—I see Brittany Bathgate in them a lot—and they have taken up permanent residence on the ambient wish list that lives inside my brain.
For those unfamiliar, barrel leg jeans have a loose-fitting leg with a slight flare at the knee and taper near the hem. Essentially, they conjure the illusion of bowed legs on the wearer. I love them so much. They appear simultaneously easygoing yet composed, making them the perfect pant to wear on days when you’re feeling lazy but still want to transmit the message that you know know fashion is. Still, it’s a hard silhouette to get right. Too poofy and they look like jodhpurs. Not poofy enough and they’re just tapered jeans. B Sides do some great ones, as do Studio Nicholson and Cordera. I cannot tell if this silhouette would look insane on me or not because I tend to look stupid wearing incredibly capacious clothing, so rather than shell out the big bucks on them I am content to keep them in the back of my mind and hope they appear in front of me while secondhand shopping someday.
*Has been relegated to a forlorn drawer at my parent’s house.
The Miracle Pants That Look Amazing on Everyone
On the subject of pants, if I could make a quick recommendation it would unequivocally be the Du/er LuxTwill High Rise Trouser. Just like the ARQ underwear I wrote about in 2021, these pants have a magical, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-like ability to mold perfectly to every single body they grace. They’re high-waisted, wide-leg and somewhat resemble the Jesse Kamm sailor pants, except they’re made from 98% cotton 2% elastane, meaning there is some actual stretch in the fabric which makes them not-miserable to wear. (They’re also not $400 USD.) Yes, the brand has kindly gifted me two pairs, but don’t just take it from me. There are 66 five-star reviews on the website from a litany of happy customers who have gone so far as to acquire multiple pairs, praising the style’s comfort, cut and overall fit. I wear these pants on a fairly regular basis and always feel a combination of confident and cool in them.
Thrift Store Price Gouging
I may dream of one day finding a pair of inexpensive secondhand barrel leg jeans, but I think it’s finally time to acknowledge that “inexpensive secondhand” is a category that simply no longer exists. Every the crappy independent thrift store near my house has begun to charge eyebrow-raising prices, such as $30 for a mid-looking Patagonia zip-up sweater covered in dog hair. Quelle horreur! The last thrift store I walked into that didn’t induce an extreme case of sticker shock was Belleville’s Thrift Store (393 Sidney Street, Belleville, Ontario) in January, where I was delighted to see weird cotton 1990s Winnie the Pooh shirts still going for $3. That isn’t to say small-town thrifting is somehow superior—on the same outing I also saw what appeared to be an open bottle of soya sauce for $4.00.
Now that it’s become legitimately financially impossible to mindlessly consume clothes anymore, I’m keeping a close eye on how that will impact people’s shopping habits. Will people ever stop actually buying clothes? I kind of wish that a shift towards reduced consumption was a more voluntary thing as opposed to a necessity but I guess that’s not always the way things work.
What I’m Reading
My dear friend Carly Lewis recently published a story in the New York Times about the raging debate surrounding voice notes. Is it annoying to receive a 4-minute long audio missive in the middle of the day? Or is it one of the modern era’s truest delights? A personal podcast recorded just for you; a phone call you can listen to at your own convenience. I’m definitely of the latter persuasion, as I love exchanging voice notes with my close friends, some of whom I have a years-long voice note communicados going at this point; one of the greatest joys of my adult life. I was honestly quite surprised to learn there were so many voice note haters out there. To the people who don’t like receiving voice notes, I would highly suggest getting some more interesting friends.