What’s with Those Pants? A tutorial on trouser length

Since wide-legged pants are in for Fall/Winter, I thought I would write up a little tutorial about ideal lengths for work and more formal trousers.   I saw a picture of FLOTUS Melania Trump recently with Justin Trudeau. Waist-up she wore her Ralph Lauren tailored jacket very well. Then I looked at her pants and almost died. Her pant legs were

dragging on the floor right in front of the Canadian Prime Minister. I started to wonder if this was a one-time fashion flare-up.   How could the First Lady wear dragging pant legs like the average fashion-incompetent DCer? It was no mistake. When I did a google search, several other pictures popped up with dragging pant legs. What could explain this? Is her stylist, Hervé Pierre, out to lunch? Is it a personal signature of the First Lady?

Unfortunately, it seems that this impractical and unsightly trend is catching on the runway and fashion ads. This does not mean that we have to follow it. When I see a DC woman with trouser legs dragging on the floor, I don’t think glamorous, I think, “This poor woman

doesn’t have a tailor.” For those of us that have to wear our wide-legged pants more than once, unlike Melania, and want to keep them looking new and unsoiled, here’s my advice.

I like to swap my shoes when I go to/leave the office so, I like to hem my pants to the length that they generously touch the floor when I am barefoot. That way, I can wear my pants with heels or flats. For those

ladies that are only going to wear work or formal trousers with certain heels, you may hem them (wearing the heels) so they at most have one inch of clearance from the floor.  Most importantly, women’s trousers should not have a break. Happy hemming everyone!