My goodness ladies, what a lovely surprise to read all these wonderful comments! Happy to be wrong in expecting this to be a less-liked look. I needed several boost buttons for many of these comments, thank you all so very much <3
Regarding both volume and culottes: I do think that we can all don these thing, and even at the same time. It's just a matter of finding our sweet spots, (or in the case of culottes, sweet lengths). Here's hoping that anyone who likes these trends will give them a shot, and if there's trouble making them work I for one would be more than happy to help troubleshoot.
Ummlila, I wouldn't worry to heavily about the length of the culottes you find -- that's what hemming is for! As long as the leg shape doesn't change too far from what you want, hemming is an easy option to make too-long culottes work for you.
Sara, I think gauchos are shorter than culottes, more of a wide-leg long short yes? The longer length is what you're after for the current look. I think you'd rock it!
Anna, happy to finally be a member! A round of culottes for all
Gigi, I tried both the regular and the petite version of these (I'm 5'3"); the fit is nearly the same on both (often the petite is smaller all around, but these seemed very similar) but shorter by a couple inches. If it hadn't fit the same, I'd have kept the regular and gotten them hemmed to this length. If you like these, the petite is worth trying for sure.
Pil, YES that is just what I'm going for with my casual outfits: casual with a touch of glam ^^