Like most clothes-loving women, I'm prone to rewatching Sex And The City. And with each nostalgic TV binge, comes a new Carrie Bradshaw (by way of Sarah Jessica Parker and Patricia Field) styling obsession.
My last scan of the six-season show last year year saw me (and everyone else) freshly embracing the corsage. This time around, it's all about pedal pushers, or, as Americans call them, Capri pants.
Of course, I'm not the only one getting the pedal pusher memo. In fact, super cropped trousers are cropping up everywhere, from Alexa Chung's limbs (in leopard print from Rouje), to Jacquemus' SS23 Runway (in denim, polka-dot and a floral print).
Fashion search engine, Lyst, confirmed for me the uptick in popularity of the style, releasing stats that: 'over the last three months searches for "pedal pushers" have increased +26%, and for "capri pants" +41%'.
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Capri pants' popularity has ebbed and flowed over the last 70 or so years. Named after the Italian Island of Capri, Audrey Hepburn and her ballet-inspired aesthetic helped popularise the not quite short, not quite trouser-length bottoms during the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, 1980s fashion embraced the length (think Princess Diana in cropped suit trousers, or Bananarama layering leggings with mini skirts), and the Y2K era was chock-full of shin-baring celebrities (like the aforementioned Parker and every single Disney child star of the era).
But, how to try the trend in 2024? I spoke to photographer, videographer, ELLE Denmark Contributing Editor and great outfit-maker Sidsel Alling to find out how she's doing it.
'I like leggings and pedal pushers to be tight (I like that body hugging feeling), and always high waisted,' Alling told me of her pedal pusher preference.
As for what to style them with: 'I love them with a tiny shoe, ballet flats or maybe a small heel - something that shows the instep of the foot for long-looking legs.'
Looking back to Hepburn or even Brigitte Bardot's outfits (a look Alling is replicating) does seem to be the simplest and chicest way to incorporate pedal pushers into any wardrobe, particularly if you've already indulged in a ballet flat, or two.
And for those wanting to be a little more daring, Ms Bradshaw was partial to plenty of calf-revealing trousers styles, be it in the form of pinstriped knickerbockers in season four, episode seven, or cargo-style cropped trousers in season six, episode five.
Alling agrees: 'my next fling is with Bermuda shorts. I saw a french woman at a market in France on a holiday with Bermuda shorts looking so chic - very similar to Carrie helping Aiden at the furniture fair. If you get that reference.'
Of course I do.
Pedal Pushers We're Buying Now
Mango Capri Leggings
Acne Studios Beige Check Trousers
Magda Butrym Pink Cropped Leggings
