Yes, cropped pants are the biggest trend for 2012. Yes, I find the trend extremely hard to pull off in flattering ways, although not an impossible feat. 

My long standing suggestion has been to wear cropped pants a little shorter than an inch or two above the ankle bone. That way your leg line looks longer, even when you wear flats, and proportions fall into place. To my eye the shorter cropped pants length looks infinitely more flattering on all body types.

As I was browsing through Dsqaured2’s Fall and Winter 2012 runway collection, my heart skipped a beat. To my delight the designers had cropped the trousers to various versions of that shorter length. I love tapered cropped pants at these lengths! I’ve shown some of the looks below, but do go back and browse through the collection for the full effect.

We might perceive flattering cropped pant lengths differently, and that’s okay. Some like them at the lengths shown here, others prefer them longer or shorter. I’m highly sensitized to the leg shortening effects of cropped pants because creating a long leg line is a figure flattering priority for me. Most designers and retailers are showing cropped pants at that tricky longer length, and often I don’t even find them attractive on the slim and leggy model. So I was ecstatic to find these shorter cropped pants renditions and desperately wanted to share them with you.