This trend is about wearing pants and jeans with straight legs or tapered legs and extra long hems, so that they create fabric scrunch across the vamp of the foot or shoe. Sometimes the vibe can be achieved with skinnies.
For the scrunch to stay put and look more visually neat, the hem openings need to fit quite snugly over the foot and shoe. Hence the need for leg silhouettes to be straight, or to taper back to the ankle if the leg shape is roomy. When extra long scrunched hems are too wide, you’ll sweep the streets with the pants, and you run the risk of tripping over them.
Here are some visuals. The amount of scrunch can be subtle or dramatic. The pants on the left showcase dramatic scrunch, and the ones on the right are less so. Interestingly, the look is shown with flats and classic sneakers, although heeled boots, oxfords and pumps work well too.
This look has been coming down fashion runways for a while, so I’m anticipating a fringe trend back to full-length pants with extra long hems. Or at least a larger availability of full-length pants and jeans, without the scrunch, at mainstream retail.
Wearing long pant hems with a tapered scrunch fondly takes me back to the ‘80s, with high rises and pleated waists. It also takes me back about nine years ago with mid rises and flat-front pants. For example, I’m wearing that here, here and here. I also enjoyed wearing straight-leg jeans with scrunch back then.
I’m in the mood to wear extra long pant hems with tapered scrunch again, only this time round with higher rises and sneakers or loafers. I’ve made cropped pants work well for my style, and they are very practical in wet Seattle weather. But the elongating effect of extra long pants is appealing, and tapered hems means dry hems in the rain. I’m a YAY. How about you?
