Ask Angie: Cropped pants vs. Culottes - the difference?

OK, what is the difference between cropped pants and culottes? I am so confused. On my thread here, I asked about hacking these pants in to cropped pants and Angie you posted this "I think you mean culottes Deb, and not cropped pants." When I think of culottes I think back to the 70's with culottes actually being a full skirt split and just below the knee. Here is a collection I did from the Nordstrom site. What do you think?

Nordstrom

Eileen Fisher Wide Leg Crop Pants (Online Only)

$168.00 $83.98

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Nordstrom

Akris Punto 'Corinne' High Waist Wool Pants

$695.00 $277.98

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Nordstrom

RED Valentino Wide Leg Pants

$395.00 $157.97

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Nordstrom

Pink Tartan 'Donegal' Tweed High Waist Crop Pants

$325.00 $162.49

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Nordstrom

Helmut Lang Crop Wool Pants

$415.00 $199.20

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Nordstrom

Helmut Lang Crop Leather Pants

$1,495.00

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Nordstrom

Elizabeth And James 'Trenton' Leaf Print Crop Wide Leg Trousers

$325.00 $129.97

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8 years ago

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

I'm also interested in what differentiates culottes from gauchos, if you'd be so kind, Angie.

annagybe

Not Angie but I think of culottes as mid calf to just below the knee. So the last patterned pair. The first pair is borderline.
Cropped pants below mid calf to above ankle. Personally I think above the ankle is key, any lower and it just looks off.

Amy

My impression is that culottes are also looser than cropped pants, almost skirt like. Gauchos are modeled after the bottoms wore by South American cowboys and look a lot like culottes, but have a high waist and only go a couple of inches below the knee.

cheryle (Dianthus)

I agree with Anna and Amy. The culottes of decades gone by were full enough to be mistaken for a skirt and usually were at or a little below the knee. If you take it literally, cropped pants would be pants that were cropped off shorter than regular pants so the leg would be consistent with a pant but short and not tapered.

That is more of a dictionary definition and very literal. I am interested in whether it is consistent with the fashion definition.

Thanks for asking this Deb. I am a bit confused by the terminology too.

Diana

I think technically they are ALL cropped pants. However, for the way the terms seem to be generally used in stores, online, etc, I would agree with Anna and Amy's definitions.

Angie

Fashion Stylist

What Amy said, Deb. Culottes are split-skirts. Here is a rundown of culottes in case you missed the post:

http://youlookfab.com/2015/04/.....-culottes/

Diana is dead right about these ALL being cropped pants, but culottes are looser and wider on the hem than regular cropped pants.

Anna is right about the length being well above the ankle. Longer, and we have Palazzo pants.

Jenn, gauchos were technically culottes.

And Deb, all your examples are culottes apart from #6 - the pair by HL.

deb

Angie, what makes #6 different? I really do not see it.

Suz

Hang on, I'm really confused. To my eye, #6 looks more like a split skirt (i.e. culottes) and the rest of these examples look like cropped pants of some kind.

Joy

I wore culottes and gauchos. Some are slimmer than others but we're often lined. I agree with Angie that all these look like culottes except #6. If the model's legs were together, these would still look like pants. My gauchos looked much like #4.

Joy, with my legs together all pants look like skirts, lol.

CocoLion

Is this kind of a potato/po-tah-to... tomato/tom-mah-to kind of questions? Or 6 of one, half dozen the other?

Denise, I think you're right. But in my own mind, culottes look a bit wider and more skirt like; cropped pants are a slimmer version. (How much slimmer might be a matter of debate). All are somewhere between bottom of knee and above the ankle length. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

catgirl

I think I posted a similar question a while back. I just ordered these to try with a Nordstrom Note because whatever they are, I think this length will work best on me as a short-statured person:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/le.....t&...

They will be a cheap experiment if they fit.

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