How To Wear Wide Pants

6 min readMar 7, 2018

Fashion tends to evolve in a very reactionary cycle. Trends from past decades come and go periodically, and now that skinny jeans have become a staple in the menswear mainstream, early adopters are jumping to the other end of the legwear spectrum. Loose pants are popping up on the runway with more regularity, and these looks have been slowly trickling down to regular wear.

Fashion forums have been filled with discussions over wide pants, and many of these communities have already begun their abandonment of slim fit garments. If everything continues like it is now, it won’t be long before we’re all wearing baggy pants again, so here are five tips to rock loose pants as they continue their climb in popularity:

1. Crop the trousers

If you’re ready to wear loose pants, you’re probably no stranger to cropped trousers. Cropping loose trousers prevents them from drowning your shoes, and it takes away the challenge of finding the perfect length that lets the pants pool properly. But most importantly, cropping your trousers makes it clear that you’re wearing these pants intentionally. Wearing pants cropped is a very deliberate decision, and combining it with loose trousers will prevent you from looking like someone inadvertently wearing pants that don’t fit right.

2. Thrift the pants

While this isn’t necessarily a tip on how to wear the pants, I think it’s important to note. Because loose pants are still a relatively smaller trend, it can be very difficult to find decent options for a decent price. Designer brands sell beautiful pants in this style, for designer prices; but you can usually find a suitable alternative in the thrift shop for $10.

Loose pants were the style fairly recently, and since their prime has passed, thrift stores are full of them. Luckily for us, they entered these stores just in time for the style to come back into fashion. You can find good quality pants made from solid materials for only a few dollars. And if you do wear the pants cropped, you barely have to worry about length; this makes finding your size a simple task. Thrifting makes it surprisingly easy and affordable to experiment with wide pants.

3. Be conscious of your proportions

Wearing something exaggerated will mess with your proportions, and this is something you have to consider when experimenting with wide pants. The key is to embrace looseness through your whole outfit. The current trend for men is slim-fitting clothing, and while small tops and loose pants is a popular look for women, it isn’t always the most flattering on guys. So ditch the slim t-shirts and opt for a comfortably loose top that matches the relaxed vibe of your new trousers. Not only will the garments make more sense together, but they will also balance your proportions in a pleasing way.

4. Balance your outfit

As mentioned above, your proportions will change when wearing loose pants. Your outfit can easily look very top-heavy, and this can look awkward. The easiest way to avoid this problem is to wear big shoes or boots to provide visual weight at the bottom of your outfit, anchoring the look and creating balance. Another option is to embrace the difference, wearing low-profile shoes to create an interestingly exaggerated silhouette, although this can be a little tougher to work out.

5. Be confident, and don’t think too hard

Lastly, be confident. This applies not only to loose pants, but all kinds of more out-there items. Be comfortable in what you’re wearing, and don’t let the clothes wear you. Try to not care that you’re wearing something a little out of the ordinary, because the truth is, no one pays nearly as much attention to you as you do, so don’t worry about wearing something weird every once in a while.

Keep all this in mind and check out the inspiration photos below for some examples of outfits that make great use of all kinds of loose pants.