How To Wear Wide Leg Trousers Like Katherine Hepburn

By Judith Rasband, AICI CIM and Dani Slaugh,  Conselle Affiliate

Donna Karan wide leg trousers

It is refreshing to see wide leg pants coming back to the stores.  The triangular shape of the garment is wonderful on most figure types, adding balance to wider hips and shoulders, whereas super skinny jeans tend to be limited to fewer body configurations.  The statement is true, “they may be called skinny jeans, but that doesn’t mean you look skinny in them.”

Are you ready to give the skinny jeans a rest for a day or two?  Great!  Try wide leg trousers, but watch the hem length.  Why?  Because when the hem hits the floor…

• You look like you’re stuck in hole.
• The hem gets rough, raw and ragged making you look generally sloppy.
• It’s hard to walk without tripping and looking like an idiot!

Katherine Hepburn wearing wide leg trousers.

To get the right length, you may need to hem the pants.  Tailors are a good option, your local dry cleaners may a tailor on staff that would help you.  Another option is to, yes, hem the pants yourself, which isn’t as difficult as it may seem.  Wide leg trousers are a classic, as shown here by Katherine Hepburn, (right).  Notice where the hem of her trouser hits on her foot…. it’s right across the middle, there is one break point, and she looks confident and lovely.  She’s not worried about the hem of her pants catching on the bottom of her shoe, she doesn’t look sloppy, and certainly doesn’t look like she’s stuck in a hole.  She is poised and powerful, that’s why she and the trousers are a classic.