Ever notice how there are certain things that are just timeless? People follow some trends season after season, for decades, and they somehow never get old, even though the new kids on the block try and push them out of the way. Trench coats, the color black, red lipstick—all perfect examples of our trusty trend-friends. Think of them like those people who go to a school and end up teaching there, or maybe they just got held back for several years because everyone just wanted them to stay (not sure how often this happens, but let’s pretend). They’re like the “classics” of fashion, the way there are classic books. I recently stumbled upon a partially neglected friend of ours who falls into this category: the cuffed pant.
For months now, I’d been fantasizing about getting a pair of loose “boyfriend” jeans and just cuffin’ ‘em up and boppin’ around. That just sounds like heaven to me. Add a big, chunky, comfy sweater and I’m all set for life. So when I went to get some new jeans last week, there’s a reason every pair came out with the hems rolled up. I’ve cuffed my jeans four times in the past week—and I’ve worn jeans four times this week.
I’d like to think that I’m about to revive a trend, but I can’t take the credit. I think it was my subconscious telling me something, because when I looked through my photo archives on my computer from past and recent seasons, there’s definitely a cuffed pant presence. Most of the vibes came from J. Crew (F/W 2011 and S/S 2012) and Isabel Marant (S/S 2012), with some Paul & Joe and ADAM (both from the S/S 2012 collections) sprinkled in there, too. Some people may believe that pants so rolled must only be jeans, but it’s just as fun to cuff pants of every kind. Although stay away from doing it to flare jeans/pants, that tends to not work so well. It’ll make the bottoms of your legs look like what would happen if you turned a toilet plunger inside out (yes, like in the Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen episode of Spongebob, ya got me).
Feel like you want to try it out? Here are a few tips on how to rock those rolled up hems:
1. Straight leg pants or jeans work best.
This is only because then the cuff is looser and more chill, but it does work if you have skinny jeans. If you go that route, I suggest pairing them with some socks that are not quite ankle socks because they’re a bit taller (I recently discovered that these are called crew socks) and either some Chuck Taylors, Vans, Keds, Toms—anything of that sort.
2. Wear snazzy shoes.
The fatal flaw of flare jeans/pants is that they often cover up your fantastic shoes. The solution to that is to roll them up, but as we discussed before, they’ll turn into toilet plunger hems. Those are no good. If you’ve got a great pair of shoes you’re dying to show off, my suggestion is to cuff dem hems! If you’re wearing the right pants, of course.
3. The “leggings are not pants” rule still applies.
This concept definitely does not work with leggings. I hope you can see why. Mainly because if we use basic logic here, if leggings aren’t pants, then you can’t cuff leggings. Simple math. But also because it’ll just look straight up silly.
If you try out this trend, I promise that a whole new world of possibilities will be opened up to you. You’ll see the world with fresh eyes! Maybe not quite, but you’ll have more ways to wear pants, anyhow.
All photos courtesy of style.com
