Why Every Pants Silhouette Is Trending Right Now

2 min read

Certain eras have their signature pants, silhouettes that are both indicative of certain periods and ways to remember them. The ’90s had the baggy jean, pooling over skate shoes; the early aughts, the low-rise flare; the mid-aughts, the skinny that looked painted on. Today, it might be easier to distill other aspects of one’s wardrobe to a few defining pieces—the jazz shoe, the midi skirt—but it’s far harder for the fashion set to settle on a signature pant. Anything goes, it seems.

If fashion month taught us anything, it’s that pants are having an identity crisis. Amid talk of several revivals (the skinny jean, the bootcut, et al.), designers offered a wide-ranging lineup: low-slung and slouchy, crisp and cigarette-slim, cropped at the ankle or pooling over a shoe. There’s no single silhouette to rally around, and that’s the fun of it.

Voluminous cargos at Balenciaga spring/summer 2027.

At Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli fluctuated between distressed jeans and billowing cargo styles that had an almost gaucho look to them. Jonathan Anderson created a range of metallic croc-embossed trousers with slim shapes at Dior, while Zimmermann experimented with laser-cut denim and flowing lace pants with silk inlays.

Nordstrom’s fashion director Linda Cui Zhang sees that same appetite for variety among shoppers. “There’s an openness to a variety of cuts to create new proportions in an outfit—embracing multiple fits at once,” she says, noting a willingness on the part of shoppers to try “new-to-them silhouettes.”

White skinny pants at Gucci spring/summer 2027.

The anything-goes approach was perhaps nowhere more evident than at Gucci, where Demna made the case for more than one pant silhouette for spring/summer 2027. Tight white pedal pushers sat in conversation with slouchy, skater-ish jeans, dark-wash bell-bottoms, and tailored trousers cropped at the ankle.

The variation fed into Demna’s character-building exercise: skinny styles belonged to the preppier looks, while looser, low-waisted pairs tapped into the collection’s grunge side.

A pair of embossed pants at Dior spring/summer 2027.

Reworked Wrangler jeans at Miu Miu spring/summer 2027.

Miu Miu, meanwhile, teamed with Wrangler to reconstruct vintage pieces like the brand’s “cowboy cut” jeans, adding lacing and custom hardware. But for every archival throwback, there were designers taking a fresh approach: Conner Ives’s comically high-waisted capris had a joy to them, while Michael Rider showed that the sometimes-constricting silhouette can feel loose and easy at Celine.

“With the emphasis on the belt and waist accessory in fashion, pant rises become a styling opportunity,” Zhang explains, bringing to mind the influx of scarf belts and maximalist waist accessories in recent seasons.

Ultra-high-rise capris from the Conner Ives spring/summer 2027 show.

Michael Rider endorsed the high waist at Celine spring/summer 2027.

The great pants divide goes beyond silhouette. Some brands have done away with the idea of bottoms entirely: see Prada’s skirt-focused Milan Fashion Week show and the parade of briefs-as-outerwear across the runways season after season.

Maybe that’s the most telling takeaway of the modern era: The defining pant is the one you don’t have to choose.