Getting the skinny on the skinny pant

First published in The Suburban September 26, 2007.
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Montreal has long been considered one of the fashion capitals of the world.

Next to New York City, I would be hard-pressed to find a more culturally diverse fashion nexus in North America. Each season, Montreal’s mainstream stores and high-end boutiques carry the latest and most dynamic trends that the fashion world has to offer.

But high fashion and daily wearability are often mutually exclusive.

Just because we have access to the latest styles does not mean that we should be running out and adding items to our wardrobes each season.

Being in fashion is about observing the most recent trends and only taking the bits and pieces that suit your personal style.

Let’s look at a dandelion of the fashion industry — an atrocious weed of a trend that keeps popping up again every few seasons —the skinny pant.

The skinny pant first made its mainstream appearance in wardrobes across North America in the ’60s.

Unlike the flare style that was all the rage in the ’90s — designed to flare out at the knee, balancing out the thigh and giving the illusion of a slimmer top half — the skinny pant hugs the leg right down to the ankle. Most of us do not have legs that can stand such scrutiny, but more about that later.

Fashion is about nostalgia, and it doesn’t take a fashion expert to see that we humans simply recycle trends every few decades. In a recent Gap ad campaign, the skinny jean was publicized by using old Audrey Hepburn footage.

Though she’s been dead over a decade, the old fashion icon looks just right in the present day campaign since her wardrobe is what today’s generation has labeled fashionable.

But looking at Hepburn dancing around in the campaign’s archival footage hasn’t quite sold me on this trend.

For starters, Hepburn’s measurements were recorded in 1953 as being 34A-20-34. No, that 20 is not a typo.

She stood five feet seven inches tall and weighed a mere 110 lbs. Normal people just don’t look like that, nor should they aspire to.

Hippies had no use for the binding skinny style and the pant was tossed aside and replaced by flowing skirts made of comfortable gingham, tie-dyed T-shirts and loose fitting jeans that allowed for practical functionality.

Skinny pants returned in the ’80s — a rather strange decade. An actor was playing president, a sequined glove-wearing man in military garb topped the charts, and hair was made to look like an electrocuted poodle.

The theory behind the skinny pant is simple; wearing slim fitting pants shows off a person’s curves and makes them look skinny, but the skinny pant is only flattering to skinny people. Frankly, the name should be changed to the “skinny person pant.”

There are, of course, those nauseating people who look good in everything and they look darn good in the skinny pant. And for those who can pull it off, one bonus is that this style is designed to highlight footwear.

Maia Bensoussan, 28, had fun adding skinny pants to her wardrobe this season. “It’s easy to dress them up and they look fabulous over great heels you want to show off,” she explains.

So the style is designed to bring attention not only to a woman’s curves, but to her accessories, and as with every pant style, the skinny trend has also made its way into the denim market, offering women a more “dressy” jean alternative.

And the skinny pant has also spawned a mixed bag of fashion atrocities and hideous accessories.

A garden of pastel-coloured suede ankle length boots and long unflattering shirts worn falling off the shoulder in high vagrant style are now in vogue. Also making a triumphant return is the worn-too-high-and-far-too-thick belt, contemporary society’s exterior corset that binds a woman’s midsection to accentuate the curvaceous buttocks and breasts.

Of course, in order for this style to work, an average-sized woman needs to wear control top panties and a push-up brassier with ample padding. Haven’t we evolved at all from the Victorian era?

Starting her accounting career, Romy Waxman has spent a lot of time this season shopping for work-appropriate clothing.

A few months ago she was encouraged by a salesperson to go the skinny pant route.

“This 90-pound, 16-year-old salesgirl looked fabulous in them and impulsively, I got a pair,” Waxman explains.

Though Waxman purchased the pants in July, “they have been hanging in the closet ever since,” she says, shaking her head, “and that’s where they’ll stay until I discover them in three years and give them to the Salvation Army.”

How is it that a trend can suddenly negate our personal senses of style?

Are we really so indoctrinated into consumer culture that we’ve lost the ability to make rational decisions about what flatters our own bodies?

The answer, embarrassing as it is to admit, is yes!

The newest thing is often considered the best; we buy impulsively and think later.

Personal fashion shouldn’t be dictated by the year or what the magazines have labeled “hot.”

It should be dictated by the woman’s body type and size — period.

And certain styles should never be allowed back. We repeat the errors of our past over and over.

So, the skinny pant does in fact look fabulous — on skinny people. But it, and all its various counterparts, should be laid to rest, once and for all.