FT NEWS

The love affair of fashion with maximalism is going further towards an extra edge, and the glimpses of this were caught in what Olivier Rousteing dropped recently: Generation 2.0 through Balmain’s new collection during mid-June. This season was all about a real flamboyant flaunt. Meanwhile, Cannes had its style bar raised by Iris Law’s new French Dispatch look – she was sensational, donning a shaved head, precisely a tight buzzcut, bleached in beautiful blonde. Gen-Z seems to have chalked their style up with the tendency of stepping over conventional peripheries with a lot of extravagance, more or less to sharpen the expanding edges. The season’s next is going to extensively showcase a flair for drama with some really chic flared pants, as an interpretation of the maximalist fervour.

The history of flared pants

Originating from the functional uniform of sailors to being a part of mainstream fashion, flared pants or bell-bottoms started to trend during the 1960s where they quickly gained massive popularity all over the world. In the 1970s, they were usually worn with Cuban-heeled shoes, clogs, or Chelsea boots. Also in the same decade, Sonny Bono and Cher made these flares an iconic style statement by wearing them on-air during their television show. These pants flared from the knee down, and owing to their mass appeal, many variants started getting developed. There were these Loon pants that were even more flared, and they were usually worn by go-go dancers. Another kind were the so-called ‘elephant bells’ which were similarly longer, covering even the high-heeled shoes that were popular in the 1970s, and, they were made of denim. This historic, retro extension for this season has been endorsed by many ultra- chic brands ruling the fashion world through their digital dynamics.

Harlequin harems

West Hollywood seems to absolutely adore colourful rainbows, psychedelic vibes with variegated vibrant colours, and diamond patterns on extra-flared pants. Emily Ratajkowski and Hailey Bieber are all about these harlequin harem pants. Coming in hot on the scene for these eye-catching trousers is the Turkish label Siedrés, which is actually the brainchild of designers Ceylin Türkkan Bilge and Emir Bilge. They have spectacularly revamped their country’s obsession with multicoloured split hem trousers. Widely known as their own MULT design, the variegated pattern sits somewhere between a stained-glass window and a Sonia Delaunay abstraction, but it might sufficiently be described as harlequin. In other words, this is what the future holds in the post-pandemic dream world. Hollywood celebrities seem to love their day-dreaming sides as per their kaleidoscopic euphoria of the 19th century fashion, even if the story of their origins is quite different from the atmosphere during those years. But like we say, fashion revolves, so, it’s interesting to see that the narrative surrounding flared pants has developed well through mainstream makers of some of the coolest collections of this season.

Gigantic glamour

Etro created unique low-waist, bejewelled bell-bottoms with a foulard-styled top for the simply stunning Izabel Goulart, who was adorning a black and feathered crystallised look on the red carpet of the 74th Cannes film festival. Also, Mike Amiri’s distinctive and aesthetic Spring-Summer 2022 womenswear collection draws a contemporary vision of empowerment that transcends gender norms for menswear-inspired womenswear. Vice versa, warped and confidently reworked around a harmonic interplay between volume, shapes, and relaxed structures with loose oversized trousers are complimenting jackets and overcoats. Subverting classic proportions, the silhouettes offer a chilled- out comfort with that Californian sense of ease – cut with broad shoulders before narrowing through the body and pooling towards the ground in generous proportions of extra fabrics is how this super stylish look is created.

The bell-bottom line

After the rise of punk rock in the late 1970s bell-bottoms began to become less fashionable as the decade drew to a close, and by 1979, skin-tight trousers or 1950s style drainpipe pants were much more in vogue. This refreshing revival of flares has occurred after ages, with bands like The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, and Charlatans having re-introduced them in late 1989 and early 1990s, calling them boot-cut or bootlegs at the time. Today, they have come back in style in an even grander way, with the seed being planted around the early 2000s as the optional, distinguished flare. They had been given a good break, and flares regained their strength back to become the favourites of many fashion icons. Be it a pleated flare with a matching, new crop top or a bodysuit, being worn at the office or off-duty, all that this look takes is simple restyling. Count it girls, it’s Balmain boy calling! Fashion couture generation 2.0 is applauded with an oversized transformation, and many more brands would be following the same inclinations of style in the upcoming times.