Beyond Palazzos: 6 Different Styles of Wide-Leg Pants
CROPPED WIDE-LEG
FREEDOM IN MOVEMENT
French designer Paul Poiret (1879–1944), inspired by the flowing, wide-leg harem pants worn in Eastern cultures, was one of the first in Western society to design pants for women.
With these wide-leg pants, our great-great-great-grandmothers found the comfort and functionality they couldn’t get from the flowing and often heavy and restrictive dresses they’d been wearing.
Unlike flare and boot-cut styles that flare out from the knee or below (see slim silhouettes), wide-leg dress pants widen at the low hip or even the waist for a flattering, comfortable, and elongating fit.
But why is one designer’s wide-leg another brand’s palazzo pants, and just what exactly qualifies as a wide-leg trouser…?
PALAZZO
DEFINE WIDE-LEG
With at least a 20” circumference at the hem, wide-leg pants are proportional to your waist and hip measurements.
The pants will start to widen at your waist or hips or they will stay the same width from the top of the pant legs to the hem.
Palazzo and other pants that flare out much further than your hips may have a 50” circumference. They are so wide that sometimes they are mistaken as skirts.
I’ve often heard women say that only slim, tall women can wear wide-legs. But truly, a wide-leg trouser is one of the most universally flattering pants you can wear.
On any shape and size, and with only a few fit and style factors to consider.
CROPPED WIDE-LEG
A FEW STYLES TO CHOOSE FROM
Each of these wide-leg pants have their own features (even though they’re often indistinguishable).
Culottes
Knee to mid-calf length pants that resemble skirts, widening out from the waist. Pretty much cropped palazzo pants.
Historically culottes were also skorts (and French women’s underwear).
Technically shorter and more voluminous than cropped wide-legs and gauchos.
Gaucho
Pretty much the Spanish version of Capri pants…but with a wide-leg.
Loose on the thigh, gauchos widen from the top of the leg to a mid-calf hem.
Unlike culottes, you’ll never mistake these for a skirt. They are distinctively short wide-leg pants.
Cropped
Widening from the waist or hip, these are long enough to graze the top of your ankle.
Like gaucho, they’re not as voluminous as culottes or palazzo pants.
Tulip
Flaring from the waist, these full-length pants float down your hips with a curved crossover shape.
The fabric will separate as you move, showing a little leg in this breezy style.
Palazzo
Full-length with an extremely wide wide-leg and a loose, flowing fit.
Mostly made with breathable fabric for trips to Italy in the hot summer and parties at the palazzo…
CULOTTE
Trousers
These tailored menswear inspired styles are famous on fashion icons Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn.
Considered to be wide-legs but they are the same width from the top of the pant leg to the hem. They aren’t overly flared.
Comfortably fitted on your waist, hips, and butt and designed to drape over your thighs for a billowing effect.
To help the drape of the trousers, or for fashion effect, these pants may have a tailored wide cuff at the bottom, stitched and pressed into place.
Often come with belt loops (even with belts made from the same fabric).
Sometimes they’ll even have a pleat or two at the front of the leg, just below the waistband.
The first Clarinda Lauren dress pants, Faith Joy, is loosely based on the trouser but with a flat waist and side zipper that is less bulky for all your shirts you don’t like to tuck in.
