Celebs No Longer Wear Pants, Apparently

Within days of reports about her (latest) split from NBA star Devin Booker, Kendall Jenner was seen walking the streets in a chic navy sweater, heels, and ultra-sheer tights as pants. Twitter had thoughts, of course—the debate primarily centered around whether the look was something akin to Princess Di’s “revenge dress” or more of a cry for help. Personally, I saw it both ways: The outfit was inevitably flattering on Jenner’s body, but at the same time, the woman was outside her home sans pants post-breakup—if I did the same, I imagine everyone in my life would look on with concerned empathy (read: pity).

But in recent weeks since Jenner first debuted the pantsless look and even posted it to her Instagram grid, she seems to have influenced celebs and fellow style icons ranging from Dua Lipa and Hailey Bieber to Christina Aguilara and the TikTok girlies, too. Tights-as-pants and just no pants, period, featured heavily at Paris Fashion Week last month too, and Vogue has identified the look as a spring 2023 trend to watch out for. Of course, it’s unclear as yet whether this will wind up being a trend for real people that you’ll catch suburbanites in your hometown sporting at the grocery store, but I say: Let’s just drop trou and go for it.

Between this and the Naked Dress renaissance, I think being playful with what parts of our bodies we choose to show and not show always makes for fun fashion. If you’re mentally preparing for this look to be everywhere come spring and seeking some inspo for how to wear it to Target, allow me to help.

For reference, here is the look that started it all. I don’t hate it. It certainly compliments Jenner’s body type as a towering 5'10" supermodel—I just have to think I, a non-5'10" woman, would feel ridiculous walking around in this. Notably, before Jenner strutted outside her house in this look, the exact fit debuted on the runway for Bottega Veneta last fall, and IMO, it worked on the runway too.

Here is Camila Mendes without a shirt or pants—just an oversized leather jacket, black lingerie, loafers, shades, and vibes. The look is substantially more casual than Kendall’s, and, aided by Mendes’ extremely chill demeanor, I’m almost convinced anyone could pull this off as long as they managed to present as this chill and confident doing so.

German model and influencer Caroline Daur also took the tights-as-pants look to nature’s runway (the streets of Paris during fashion week) with stockings substantially more sheer than Jenner’s. I’m personally obsessed with the look, but it’s the elegance of the knee-length feather coat and overall Black Swan vibe that really sells it for me.

Here’s a bold one from Italian designer and model Christina Ferragni at Paris Fashion Week last month. The sharp cone boobs of her blouse may steal the show, but please note that the woman’s polkadot stockings are, again, substituting for pants.

I am actually quite a fan of how the younger KarJenner styled this one—the vibe is as laid back as a pants-less look should be, with a coat hastily thrown over the whole white-briefs-and-sheer-tights number, seemingly as a very stylish afterthought. It’s unpretentious until you realize the entire fit probably cost more than a whole year’s salary for the average person.

Bella Hadid is constantly pioneering new trends in off-duty model, streetwear looks, and this from last fall was certainly an outfit. Here, the model quite literally substitutes tighty-whities for pants, and somehow makes it work with a black and blue, oversized leather jacket. I am once again uncertain how this outfit would appear on an ordinary person, but, again, it seems to boil down to confidence. If you feel comfortable galavanting about town wearing white boyshorts in lieu of pants, go for it, I guess!

Earlier this month, Emily Ratajkowski hit up New York Fashion Week, also minus pants, in an oversized blazer and platform boots, and you know what—sure! It’s a look, and the print pattern of the blazer certainly livens things up enough to distract from the lack of accompanying trousers.

Rochelle Humes attended the 2022 Fashion Awards last fall in an off-the-shoulder white jacket, some Rainforest Cafe sparklers, tights, and stilletos. The silver and glitter were a real ode to the holiday season, but in the cold light of February, I struggle to picture this outfit working in a non-holiday context.