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In the era of COVID-19 and the abyss of Zoom meetings, the focus is on the waist up. You could attend a company Zoom meeting in a really fancy computer-camera-ready top full of volume and frills and a pair of underwear. (I didn’t do it, I swear. Then again, you’d never know.) This is why the rise of sweatpants is here. Last week, I wrote an article about a pair of trusty $20 Wrangler jeans that I have been living in during lockdown. Don’t get me wrong, I do love these jeans. But sometimes I just need something else that’s a bit spicier and has more oomph. I was overjoyed to see Bella Hadid post one of her sun-soaked, angle-perfected fit pics on Instagram yesterday. This time around she opted for a flirty Easter egg yellow top and a tiny Louis Vuitton monogram pochette. Yet, the beauty here was all in the pants. Those body-skimming flares by Etro came in a paisley print, and I really wanted to wear a pair. And Hadid isn’t the only lady in outré pants: Back in May, Kim Kardashian West posted à la cat on the hunt, on all fours, wearing a pair of snakeskin-print pants.
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It was a refreshing look, especially considering pants are not a top fashion priority right now. “I never used to wear shorts during the week, but since I now spend my days sitting cross-legged on my couch and my colleagues only see me through a Zoom screen, comfort is my first priority,“ says living and beauty editor Ella Riley-Adams. Market editor Rachel Besser shared a similar sentiment. “My pants have gotten sad—they are either sweats or a trouser with some stretch,” she writes to me over Slack, presumably while wearing sweats or a trouser with some stretch. “But I have been eyeing a lot of printed pants because I want to express myself on my lower half again.”
I’m with Besser. I want a kicky pant with character, pizzazz, flair, and flare (literally and figuratively). In my weird internet K-holes, I do some archival show research to relive the era of sexy, fun pants, mostly in the noughties. There’s Tom Ford for Gucci’s spring 2000 show that featured pairs of python flares and metallic striped trousers. On The RealReal, I’m scrolling through animal-print pants from early-’00s Roberto Cavalli, the king of freaky-chic trousers. Wild pants are still appearing on the runways 20 years later. In spring 2020 (along with several other seasons), Collina Strada showed a pair of airbrushed pants, while in fall 2020 Bode opted for logoed and patched pants.
Sure, one might wonder if you wear fun pants in the era of Zoom, do they even make an impact? But, unlike me, some people are actually dressing up their lower portions. My colleague, fashion news and emerging platforms editor Steff Yotka, waxed poetic about the concept. “No one can see me from the waist down anyway, so why not wear all the wacky prints and over-the-top items I adore and make me feel the most me?” she writes. “WFH outfits don’t have to be practical for our daily lives—they can be practical for our imaginations. It’s style for style’s sake, and I’m so into that.” I like this philosophy of dressing for oneself and not others. It’s psychologically uplifting and has that dressing-for-the-job state of mind. On that note, I guess it’s time to put my big-girl, very-wild pants on. Too bad you won’t get to see them.
