YouLookFab Forum » Topic: Pants Philosophy

YouLookFab Forum » Topic: Pants Philosophy https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Tue, 07 Apr 2026 06:46:37 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php Jonesy on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2355109 Thu, 14 Mar 2024 20:18:03 +0000 Jonesy 2355109@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I loved this article so much! Pants can be...quite complicated as he so eloquently and humorously described. I appreciated his sense of fun and his derring-do: I think he described some giant purple corduroy pants he was wearing as he was writing the article. Meanwhile, I've been trying to gently nudge my SO into a *slightly* looser cut of jeans/pants, with mixed success. judy on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2355049 Thu, 14 Mar 2024 12:57:00 +0000 judy 2355049@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Loved listening to this!  What a funny lighthearted take on it all.   In 2016 I purchased a pair of jeans online from a brand I thought I knew my size in, marked way down, and final sale.  The denim was gorgeous, but wow were they big.  Well, couldn't return them, so how can I wear them?  So I belted them and turned up the big cuffs.  They were so comfortable!  (and stupid!)  In the years since then, I've grown into them a bit though they are still comfortably oversized and now I turn the cuffs down and wear them long...because now that feels "stupid"...or odd and new.  Our brains do crave novelty, don't they!  Now my most stupid pants are a pair of chinos that in order to fit the high waist on my large waistline are very, very baggy everywhere else on me...and long.  But off I go in them. Je Ne Sais Pas on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354431 Tue, 05 Mar 2024 14:14:51 +0000 Je Ne Sais Pas 2354431@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ This was indeed a very interesting a funny read! Thank you for sharing *Roberta*!!! lyn67 on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354422 Tue, 05 Mar 2024 09:33:31 +0000 lyn67 2354422@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ OMG, this was hillarious-and totally right!!!:-)) Some quotes: <div> Larry David once said that “trying on pants is one of the most humiliating things a man can suffer.” In a 2021 interview, David Lynch — a master of the dread that lurks beneath the surface of the quotidian — confessed: “I am searching for a good pair of pants. I never found a pair of pants that I just love,” adding, “If they’re not right, which they never are, it’s a sadness.” “A T-shirt is so much simpler,” Hine said. “A sweater is so much simpler. Even with a button-up, you can fake it: roll up the sleeves, unbutton the neck.” But “there’s no place to hide in a bad-fitting pair of pants. “Pants are diabolical as design objects,” For our part, we tend to wear the clothes we wear not just because we “like” them but also because we want to telegraph our taste, cultural affiliations and social status to other people. This game of signaling gets less fun if too many people can read our cues, but it breaks down entirely in the opposite scenario, in which no one picks up on our cues at all, because everyone speaks in a different tongue: a Tower of Babel, for pants. There was a pair of skinny jeans at 12 o’clock, baggy jeans at 6 o’clock and a red marker indicating 4 o’clock: “I believe we are approximately here in the society pant cycle,” a caption declared. “Wear whatever you like” has long struck me as up there with "be yourself” when it comes to useless style advice, as if your personal style didn’t always contain some irreducible level of dialogue with the tastes, prerogatives and opinions of others — as if taste were something that could ever take the form of pure monologue. And yet, as fascinated as I am with pants, scrolling through the replies I felt nothing so strongly as the urge to escape the “society pant cycle” entirely — to step off the carousel once and for all. But the best of them all:-):  “Whatever style pants look like [expletive] to you are the pants you’re supposed to wear,” he wrote, “and as soon as they start to look normal to you, those are not the right pants anymore. You should always be wearing pants you think look stupid.” </div> unfrumped on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354374 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:56:44 +0000 unfrumped 2354374@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ What La Ped said. And also: While not a big trend-follower ( more from ineptitude than individualistic superiority !), and especially not in jeans because jeans are usually a secondary pant type for me, I still think I’m sensitive to and influenced by the changing pants style scene, at least over the longer trend- waves. From a personal style perspective ,my enduring favorites are slightly slim, or slim and straights, or joggers, and pleated wider leg trousers. But not wide- leg jeans, which have proved to have too many problems in fit. But these days I’m feeling more and more DYOT from a purely PRACTICAL perspective. Pants have always been about more than , what width or length , when I’m actually buying some. I have a LOT of boxes to tick. Waist, hip, seat, flow from hip to leg; pockets ;,fabric; possibly tailoring investment; and color palette versatility. Then, proportions with tops & toppers, which means I’ve invested in some that work well, and yet not all in my wardrobe work with all pants. And season of wear. Usefulness in travel capsules. So I am now seeing more clearly how being too easily drawn into a hasty purchase or marketing or FOMO or just being too easily “ dis- invested “ in some my existing items that work well already, can have so much domino effect on having to re-create a whole capsule and maybe I stop wearing the items that used to “ go”, even though I may still love them. This doesn’t mean wearing stuff I hate. I am currently culling a number of items! And some are in the category of hasty/ wanted purchases. it’s more subtle I think, in re-visiting wardrobe items, or, wow, this is still great, now I remember why I liked it in the first place, this is a good style/ quality/ color for ME. Who knew. Roberta on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354371 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:34:38 +0000 Roberta 2354371@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Hahaha, the Lost-and-Found pants! Carol, that is the perfect descriptor. You should post that comment to the NYT article.  I will try to remember to post the article to the next link collection. I see the articles and then forget about them when Inge's reminder comes around. LaPed on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354365 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:32:00 +0000 LaPed 2354365@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Love this! I remember becoming aware of the pants pendulum at a very young age, sometime during the 90s when anything tapered became Very Uncool and the only acceptable silhouettes were WIDE and then flare/bootcut. Only moms wore tapered pants, holdovers from the 80s (totally in line with the Obama "dad pants" example in the article). I rode the wide/flared train very comfortably for a decade-plus; then I fell in love with a perfect-fitting pair of vintage 80s J Crew jeans -- faded black, button fly, slim taper, totally timeless -- sometime around 2007, so early in the pendulum swing back to skinny. I wore them right into the ground and got so, so many compliments on them. It was a long time before I found another pair of slim tapered jeans that fit as well as those did, confined as I was, by my tiny fresh-out-of-college budget, to thrifting. A couple of my closest friends worked at the best thrift store in town, so I got first dibs on the coolest stuff -- I still have a couple of scores from those days. And I never did find a pair of modern skinny jeans that I could bear to wear, but managed to get by looking fairly current in vintage 501s and similar (which, yes, now feel too slim for our present moment -- as the author notes!), and breathed a big sigh of relief when pants started getting wider again. At this point, I'm happy having a full range of silhouettes to choose from. I definitely won't get rid of any of my slim-straight pants because finding ones that fit well is so hard!  Carol on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354349 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 05:16:42 +0000 Carol 2354349@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I agree that you're supposed to wear the pants that look crappy to you, like the comedian said. About a year ago, I began looking at all the boxy, light-wash denim pants around, and  I said to myself: the style today seems to be lost-and-found. As in, these are the pants we'd have to get out of the lost and found and wear in elementary school, when we peed our pants or got paint on them.  Just super awkward and boxy. I have since identified a couple styles I like today, but I still think certain silhouettes are awkward.  Star (Lise) on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354346 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 03:25:47 +0000 Star (Lise) 2354346@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Interesting!!  So currently I don't like skinny jeans, or boyfriend jeans or wide jeans - big conundrum!  I wonder what this is all about from the woman who has always lived in and loved jeans.  I just cannot find the silhouette that speaks to me.   Sal on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354345 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 03:06:47 +0000 Sal 2354345@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Haha!  Very funny and well written Jenni NZ on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354339 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 01:44:55 +0000 Jenni NZ 2354339@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Fun article. I enjoyed the mention of David Lynch who I have just been reading about, about his disliking the Dune movie he made in 1984. We actually saw that one, it was our first date! We are about to see the Dune 2 movie this week. I will never wear the right shape of pants again I’m sure! But I don’t care Jaime on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354338 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 01:43:03 +0000 Jaime 2354338@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Love this article - and the illustrations! Helena on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354333 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:46:54 +0000 Helena 2354333@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Haha ... So funny ... I think I'm always an hour late on the pants clock lol! Suz on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354331 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 23:33:23 +0000 Suz 2354331@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I loved this. Very fun to see it from a male perspective.  Anonymous on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354314 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 22:18:54 +0000 Anonymous 2354314@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ I read the article and it made me laugh. I have thin legs. Even narrow pants loot at least straight legged on me. Add that to weight loss and all my pants are big, some will not stay up I just need new tight belts. I am a slow adapter so new pants… well I have not found the right ones yet . I just want something that will stay up. Right now my pants are XS and S. M does not stay up at all . Carla on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354312 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 22:05:53 +0000 Carla 2354312@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Ha!  The magazine insert was sitting on the table in the cafe where DH and I ended up mid walk.  (Needed sustenance at the half way mark :-D )  Of course I had to read it!   Angie on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354308 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 21:43:07 +0000 Angie 2354308@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ YES! I read it. Fabulous! Make sure you post it for Inge for Link Love ;)  ChristelJ on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354291 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 15:11:34 +0000 ChristelJ 2354291@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ Just read that too, and loved it. Roberta on "Pants Philosophy" https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/pants-philosophy#post-2354289 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 14:55:57 +0000 Roberta 2354289@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ This article was hilarious, enlightening, and actually useful. I hope you enjoy it. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/03/magazine/big-pants-style.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Z00.y0rF.ptHGWVvBpib6&smid=url-share" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/0.....=url-share</a>