While a pair of pants is usually the first thing you put on when getting dressed, they have become the final item more recently; the cherry atop the bakewell tart. In the topsy-turvy world of style this season, celebrities and party-goers have ditched their trousers, despite the cold.
Last week, Time magazine revealed its “person of the year” as Taylor Swift. She graced the cover in a pair of basic black pants worn over, not under, sheer black tights.Black pants were also the crux of Beyonce’s look at the premiere of her film Renaissance in London last month. Her Thom Browne couture gown deliberately cut to showcase high-rise pants with a gold, embroidered floral motif. Elsewhere, in a promotional video for her new single Houdini, Dua Lipa dances around a studio in a vest and pair of white cotton pants – triggering for anyone who forgot their PE kit during the 1990s.
Miu Miu is the leader of this underwear as outerwear movement. For its autumn/winter 2023 show, the brand’s creative director, Miuccia Prada, ditched actual pants in favour of sparkly briefs, which models including the actor Emma Corrin wore over wafer-thin tights. “If I were younger, I would go out in panties!” exclaimed the Prada designer to Vogue after the show. A couple of months later, Corrin did just that when they appeared on the red carpet at the Venice film festival in a pair of knitted pants and matching cardigan.
According to analysts for the search engine Tagwalk, pants featured in 38% of this year’s autumn/winter collections at Paris fashion week. For spring/summer 2024, hotpants were up 114%. There were ribbed briefs at Loewe, metallic pairs at Stella McCartney and knitted iterations at Victoria Beckham.
Online, the reaction runs the gamut from “instant yeast infection” to hacks on how to emulate the look via traditional tummy control pants. John Lewis says sales of its full coverage briefs from Spanx are up 44%. Free People sells a dupe of Miu Miu’s £3,750 crystal encrusted pants for £68. The black version is sold out online.
Of course, this isn’t the first time visible panty lines have made headlines. In 2022, exposed thongs had another resurgence as Gen Z worked their way through the hallmarks of Y2K.
However, this new take hints at a wider vibe shift. During the late 90s and noughties, upskirting shots were a strange yet widely accepted part of celebrity culture. Magazines and tabloids ran them on front covers, usually accompanied with a shame-evoking headline. Later, the visible thong, synonymous with the late 90s and early noughties, was hailed as a totem of female empowerment.
When Kate Middleton wore a black pair under a sheer dress on the catwalk of a university fashion show in 2002, it was widely hailed as the power move that seduced William. Over two decades later, the same discourse has reemerged: season six of The Crown, released on Thursday, sees the actor Meg Bellamy recreate the scene (below).
This year’s pants iterations subvert traditional tropes of femininity and sexiness – though it should be noted those spearheading the trend are typically of a certain body type. Prada, known for playing with contemporary ideals of beauty, paired Miu Miu’s glittery pants with knitted roll-necks and cosy cardigans. Not exactly rock’n’roll. Corrin likes to wear them with a pair of flat brogues, while Olivia Wilde and Kylie Jenner prefer a floor-length wool coat. Kendall Jenner, meanwhile, has been known to pair hers with a $4,200 Bottega Veneta bag … and not much else.
The trend pays homage to the original pants poster girl, Edie Sedgwick who during the 1960s hung out with Andy Warhol and his Factory posse in black pants, tights and a T-shirt, eventually leading to Life magazine to crown her “the girl with the black tights”.
“More of us are throwing caution to the wind when it comes to what we wear,” says British Vogue’s Julia Hobbs, who wrote about wearing Miu Miu’s gold sequinned pair. “There’s something celebratory and freeing … I wanted to home in on the playfulness of the exposed pants trend. This isn’t about taking yourself too seriously.”
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