On Gauchos and Culottes

Even though I'm not the least bit a part of it--though I did spend this past Saturday shuffling samples to and from a showroom in Chelsea and the Bowery Hotel (that was fun and glamorous, totally jk)--fashion week in New York always excites me. I feel like the city comes alive with the promise of new clothes and fresh trends. I probably wouldn't feel so closely entwined in the happenings on and off the runway if it weren't for Style.com, which I've been going to every hour for the past week to see what's coming down the runways and who's wearing what on the street.

One of the trends I'm most looking forward to is the culotte and its close relative, the gaucho. Denim, khaki, suede, whatever. The material is negligible as long as the wide-legged pant is present. Worth pointing out that my roommates and I were LITERALLY just talking about how jersey gauchos were an offensive trend (made extra worse by VPLs) that we all fell victim to sometime between 2005 and 2007. I'm also 97% sure my one of my roommates kept her tween gauchos and now wears them as pajama pants. Please verify, Ellen.

My roommate's choice of pant in 2014 aside, I wonder if the gaucho/culotte trend can acceptably look good when worn with flats or sneakers, or do they have to be worn with heels? Granted, they look really fricken cool when worn with heels, but do realistic young millennials comme moi really have the lifestyle of a heels and gaucho-wearing laday? Yeah...no. Luckily I have until spring to figure it out, although I can always wear them with my CLOGS!

Images from Style.com: J.Crew, MM6 Maison Martin Margiela, Delpozo (to be honest, totally cannot tell if this last one is a pant or a skirt, but I guess that's the allure of a wide-legged pant.)