Women's Pant Fashion

Women and pants hold a brief but beautiful history. While they didn’t enter the Western fashion scene for women until the early 20th century, and didn’t become mainstream until the Sexual Revolution and Second-wave Feminist Movement of the 1960s, pants have now secured their place as a fashion staple. Here are some ways to style your pants beyond the basic skinny jeans.

Menswear

What better place to start than the very origin of trouser fashion: menswear. This typically entails higher waisted pants with tailored, straight leg cuts and minimal to no patterns (think: pinstripes, checkered, plaid, etc). If you’re looking for a feminine restyle of menswear, add some delicate necklaces and rings to balance the blocky shape of the pants. If you’re looking for a more femme look, put on your cutest bralette and platform sandals. But if you want to stay closer to the original style, wear a looser fit of slacks with a basic white long sleeve.

Culottes

Culottes are perhaps the most comfortable yet elegant pair of pants you’ll ever try on. Once associated with upper class men, they’re now available to anyone, so there’s no reason to not try them out. Match a deep wine colored culotte with a black ensemble of a v-neck sweater and strappy black heels to leave your peers wondering what internship you’re heading off to now.

Denim

Since the 1970s bell bottoms, jeans have progressively been getting tighter until we reached the suffocatingly tight skinnies of the 2010s. Though skinny jeans have championed over all other cuts for the past ten years, jeans with more square silhouettes reminiscent of the 1990s are coming back full force, and with that comes the delightful frankensteining of fabrics that characterized that era of fashion. So, don’t be afraid to mix and match textures and patterns! A pair of reconstructed kick flare jeans with fishnet underneath might seem like an intimidating piece, but you can easily tone it down with a pair of classic sneaks and a golden sweater perfect for the fall season (or for any dedicated Cal fan).

Athleisure

Athleisure is undoubtedly a comfort pick, but that doesn’t mean it has to look sloppy or limited to the Adidas joggers you’ve worn since sophomore year of highschool. Revamp the look to include high slit track pants and a puffer jacket as an alternative to a plain zip up. A fitted tube top with some decked out jewelry (your biggest hoops, please!) will help to complement the fusion style of class and athletic.

While online retailers are provided throughout, many of these options are ever so conveniently available at the thrift stores around campus (or Urban Outfitters if your parents felt generous after you called them without being nagged for a week) or can even be constructed from existing pieces of your current wardrobe. And of course, style adjustments to suit your own vibe are what define the current trend in pants, so style away!

Words By Elizabeth Lemons

Photography By Jessie Nguyen & Sara Ye