I spent years thinking wide leg trousers were the thing you wore to a wedding and black skinny jeans were the thing you wore to work, and swapping one for the other felt like turning up to the office in fancy dress. I was wrong about that for roughly four years, which is embarrassing to admit given how simple the fix turned out to be. A proper black wide leg jean, the kind with a bit of structure through the waist and a hem that skims the floor rather than dragging through it, does everything a smart trouser does and moves like denim, which is a completely different feeling by 4pm on a Thursday.
What makes a good one is mostly about the things you cannot always tell from a photo. A high rise that actually sits on your waist instead of sliding down after the second coffee. A leg with enough drape that it swings when you walk rather than standing there like a tube.
Real pockets, not the decorative slits that look fine and hold nothing, my colleague Priya once watched me try to fit a phone into one and said “that’s not a pocket, that’s a suggestion of a pocket.” And a fabric with enough weight to it that it doesn’t crease the second you sit down for a two hour meeting, because nobody looks authoritative presenting quarterly numbers in trousers that look like they’ve been slept in.
Styling wise, this is where the jean earns its place. Tuck in something structured, a crisp white shirt or a fine knit, and let the leg do the talking, it needs the top half kept fairly simple or the whole thing tips into loud. A blazer over the top takes it properly into meeting territory.
Loafers or a pointed flat for the office, a heeled boot if you’re going straight from desk to dinner without a detour home to change, which is basically the entire appeal of this jean over a trouser in the first place.
It suits the days that need you to look sharp without admitting you’re wearing jeans, the presentation, the client lunch, the leaving drinks you didn’t plan to end up at. One item, no changing at 6pm. That’s the whole point.
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