I find that Sorel has a high shaft and some of their boots are lace up so they provide a lot of ankle stability. They are well made very functional, especially for a "fashion" winter boot. I own several pair and they are my go to boots for work when the weather is bad.

In a word: Blondos. Your pant legs will dry, and no shoe change!

Love Abby's suggestions! I remember the bouffant tucked army pants in laced up flat punk-style mid-calf boot look; I thought it was so cool.

Thanks for starting this thread and bringing this issue up.

Good answers have been proposed, such as cropped wide bottoms and culottes (but then in Canada at least you must wear tights under them, otherwise, forget it. Cold seeps through there and it's excrutiating guaranteed).

When I want to wear wide hems pants, I wear heeled booties (low heel); they tend to be just a bit higher than the shoes. So the look of the pants change a bit (it's not ground grazing anymore, which is the point). And when the snow is heavy or when it rains or ice rains, I resort to folding the hem back loosely a couple of times, so it's protected from the ground - and the droplets from walking, another big problem skinnies tucked into high boots solutioned.

So my solution is not stylish and not durable. It wouldn't suit a long distant walker for example. In the 1970's I remember grown ups sporting heavy cuban heeled leather knee high boots under their bell bottoms, and their bell bottoms significantly shorter than today's.

Actually, I saw some people in the Netherlands last week wear their jeans the way abby suggests, and it looked fab with a higher shaft boot.

For those of you who don't actually deal with snow... it's not just getting wet, wet will dry. It's the salt, the sand, and all the gunk that gets washed off the underside of cars, that ends up on the roads and gets scraped onto the sidewalks. So with longer pants, you'll also end up with white high tide marks from the salt, or nasty brown splatter marks up the back of your legs, just from walking very carefully. And the splatter marks can stain. It's especially bad when the temps are around freezing, when things are slushy, and cars spray stuff up when driving by.

I'm loving the longer lengths, but the reality is starting to set in.... sigh.

So K.M.: Are you thinking a tight ankle fit snow boot that will go under wideleg pants? These ones from Bogs are fairly warm, waterproof, and very streamlined. They fit well under a straight or boot cut. The issue with the black is that the salt shows pretty easily, but there are other colours. They also have one with a higher shaft.

They might be a bit too sporty for your needs though.

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smittie, they look so toasty!!!

Browsing through Zalando’s offerings, I was reminded of this post. If you want to take a tip from den Deutschen, here are a few shots from their website. I notice higher hems and low heeled boots.

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FashIntern, interesting! That's the territory I want to explore--cropped widelegs. Do you see people out on the streets wearing this look? I saw a few around here in the Midwest the Fall, but not very many--it's such a fashion-forward look and here I'd say most people are more conservative.