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How to rock the trouser trend

January 31, 2011 12:07

ByJan Shure, Jan Shure

2 min read

If you expect clarity from the JC on trousers for Spring, you are - and I say this with the utmost regret and humility - in for a disappointment. The fashion editor is as confused as most of you and, indeed, as most of the designers, who cannot seem to agree on what is the hot trouser shape for the Spring season, offering, in place of clarity, a smorgasbord of choice.

Philip Lim's 3.1 label offered skinny trousers with turn ups, ankle-hitting tuxedo trousers and long, wide-leg silk babies with turn ups. Bucking the ankle-length trend, Antonio Berardi produced over-long trousers in narrow and wide-leg versions; Betty Jackson did long, 70s-style wide-leg turn ups as well as narrow, ankle-hitting turn ups and some narrow pants without turn ups that also just hit the ankle.

Dries van Noten did wide, 70s-style, long trousers and wide-leg jeans, and narrow trousers with digital floral print spilling over the hips. Phoebe Philo's acclaimed collection for Celine featured slouchy trousers that skimmed the hip then flared gently from mid thigh, falling long and unstructured, as well as narrower, slouchy, mannish babies, and skinny, ankle-length variants. (Do keep up at the back; there'll be questions after the lesson). Stella McCartney's trousers were almost all skinny with turn ups, just hitting the ankle bone, but she also did long, wide-leg 70s-style pairs, sans turn-up. Marc Jacobs embraced the 70s disco diva, producing wide-leg trousers in satin and silk, also without turn-ups, while MaxMara went skinny, with tailored, top-of-the-ankle trousers with a tiny kick flare, departing from the shape with the occasional pair of palazzos.

On the high street and in the up-scale shops there's even more choice, since most of the shapes shown on the Spring 2011 catwalks have been joined by styles which appeared on the runways in 2010 (and even 2009; it takes time for some of the most cutting edge styles to filter through to the rails).