Pull your pants up
Martin Doyle3/02/2010 8:54:00 a.m.
Today I’m getting into your pants.
What I mean is that I’ve got into so many different things about you over the months in this column that it’s now time to get into a particular topic that genuinely needs urgent attention: the length of your trouser legs. In fact, it’s become clear to me over the last couple of years that the height of a person’s hems are far more suggestive, inspiring, influential even, than body size or shape.
Our culture has got the wrong idea on bodies. We all want the perfect body, la bella figura as they say in Italy, and we sillily think it’s out there somewhere and once we find it all we have to do is copy it. Wrong. The perfect body is that pile of blubber you look at every morning in the mirror. Twenty years ago everyone shrank with fear of getting anorexia; now the big problem is obesity. Fear of thin, fear of fat, and not very fair on ourselves. The ideal attitude is self-acceptance. And after that, pants that talk.
The big mover in Wellington fashion right now is the height of trouser hems. Traditionally a trouser leg stretched all the way from the waist to the side of your shoes. And that had some advantages. The ‘long’ trousers made you look ‘long’. But trousers are boring now. They’re like straitjackets on our legs, stifling personality and inhibiting free movement. And the answer is not those giant burst-bowel shorts or things that provoke the question “Are they short longs or long shorts?”
What is the new ideal? I believe it’s the shorter trouser leg, the three-quarter cut, the Capri, the pedal-pushers, the short tracksuit pants that come halfway up your calves. I don’t know the right word for it and possibly there are many words and variations.
It’s a winning look that many local people, especially some women, have gone for this summer. It’s wonderful. The shorter trouser leg shows off the calves, ankles and feet (whether bare or in running shoes). And calves, ankles and feet are the most invigorating body parts known to the human race, so the three-quarter look is potent.
People in shortened trousers look like something. They subconsciously evoke the image of deckhands, or pirates, scrubbers, ABs, spunky water rats. They make you look ‘ready for action’, quick, snappy, one of the crew. When you look at someone in Capri pants, you’re looking at someone who could scramble up the rigging with a knife between her teeth at the drop of a hat. Everything about them says ‘I’m your man’ or ‘I’m your woman’. Even otherwise overweight individuals look nimble in three-quarter legs. The truncated trousers make them look taller because it’s as if their legs have suddenly grown longer than their pants. Overall, it’s the best look in town. So, if you haven’t done so already, then pull up your pants!
What I mean is that I’ve got into so many different things about you over the months in this column that it’s now time to get into a particular topic that genuinely needs urgent attention: the length of your trouser legs. In fact, it’s become clear to me over the last couple of years that the height of a person’s hems are far more suggestive, inspiring, influential even, than body size or shape.
Our culture has got the wrong idea on bodies. We all want the perfect body, la bella figura as they say in Italy, and we sillily think it’s out there somewhere and once we find it all we have to do is copy it. Wrong. The perfect body is that pile of blubber you look at every morning in the mirror. Twenty years ago everyone shrank with fear of getting anorexia; now the big problem is obesity. Fear of thin, fear of fat, and not very fair on ourselves. The ideal attitude is self-acceptance. And after that, pants that talk.
The big mover in Wellington fashion right now is the height of trouser hems. Traditionally a trouser leg stretched all the way from the waist to the side of your shoes. And that had some advantages. The ‘long’ trousers made you look ‘long’. But trousers are boring now. They’re like straitjackets on our legs, stifling personality and inhibiting free movement. And the answer is not those giant burst-bowel shorts or things that provoke the question “Are they short longs or long shorts?”
What is the new ideal? I believe it’s the shorter trouser leg, the three-quarter cut, the Capri, the pedal-pushers, the short tracksuit pants that come halfway up your calves. I don’t know the right word for it and possibly there are many words and variations.
It’s a winning look that many local people, especially some women, have gone for this summer. It’s wonderful. The shorter trouser leg shows off the calves, ankles and feet (whether bare or in running shoes). And calves, ankles and feet are the most invigorating body parts known to the human race, so the three-quarter look is potent.
People in shortened trousers look like something. They subconsciously evoke the image of deckhands, or pirates, scrubbers, ABs, spunky water rats. They make you look ‘ready for action’, quick, snappy, one of the crew. When you look at someone in Capri pants, you’re looking at someone who could scramble up the rigging with a knife between her teeth at the drop of a hat. Everything about them says ‘I’m your man’ or ‘I’m your woman’. Even otherwise overweight individuals look nimble in three-quarter legs. The truncated trousers make them look taller because it’s as if their legs have suddenly grown longer than their pants. Overall, it’s the best look in town. So, if you haven’t done so already, then pull up your pants!
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