There are life-changing discoveries.
For me, it was the music of Radiohead, a certain book by Céline, the adjective "callipyge", the end of Usual Suspects, grandma's tomato soup and so on, it would become too intimate. Everyone has their own set of revolutionary experiences for themselves. We share some of them. Like pants that fit perfectly for example.
Until you wear one, you don't know...
When, in the overexposed space of the fitting room, you button the belt and, after a quick examination of the pants and yourself, you take your hands out of your pockets to clap like crazy. Because finally!, you have found these pants, your pants, the ones that fit well, that fit just right, as right as a line from Michel Audiard sounds.
There is a before and there is an after this moment.
What are pants that fit well?
The venerable Yukio Akamine and his pants that fit just right. (It's a subject about pants but we can't stop ourselves from examining the way we combine colors...).
These are pants with the right length, as we talked about in a previous article , but they are also pants well positioned at the waist , where it will be most flattering for your figure, depending on your body shape.
In short, the million dollar question is: is it better to opt for a low waist, mid-high waist, high waist or somewhere in between?
I could tell you right away that it should be neither too high nor too low on the hips, but that wouldn't help you much, would it?
So let's first try to understand what "flattering your figure, according to your body type" means.
What is a successful silhouette?
A silhouette is successful when an impression of harmony emerges when you see your outfit.
And this general harmony is, among other things, made possible by the balance between the upper part and the lower part of your silhouette. This means that these two parts must be equal in their respective dimensions (head and feet included). In short, there should not be a disproportionate result.
A disproportionately long bust, mounted on short legs, lacks harmony.
Very long legs visually encroaching on a tiny trunk is no better.
OK.
Observe the proportions. Everything is harmonious. The high-waisted pants balanced by the jacket establishing the balance. In this way, we have an impression of length but controlled. If the jacket had been shorter, the impression of leg length would have been excessive. (Photo credits: Maomao from Styleforum)
Now look at yourself in a mirror in the simplest device. Yes yes. Or maybe you already know: are you more legs or more trunk?
Nobody is perfect. Except perfect people, of course.
Once again, the one who dresses well is an illusionist who shows or conceals according to his will and for a specific purpose. So, if you have short legs, the game will consist
If we all wore gas pump suits, it would make things easier! Everyone would appear their size, no more, no less, and appearances would be less deceptive.
In short, two equal parts or almost, I wrote.
In this "almost", we have everything. This is the gray area that you must learn to turn to your advantage.
This is what this “approximately” contains. What makes you appear taller are the legs. You can have, like me, a long neck and a bust too, measuring 1m80. If your legs are short and you don't take this information into account, you will have lost. You will be remembered as not as tall as that guy, yet as tall as you, who wears high-waisted pants.
The silhouette is made up of two equal parts... but with a slight advantage in leg length. These are well-worn pants. 😉 (Photo Credits: Men in this town)
If you are all legs, on the contrary, harmonizing the upper part with the lower part of your body will reduce the impression of slenderness of your body.
But how to do it exactly?
Three ways to do it
There is no secret, the way to wear pants is when the crotch is close to the penis. Well, a strange sentence I agree, but nevertheless true.
The crotch is the seam at the crotch, the meeting point between the two legs. It must be well positioned just under the genitals because otherwise, it is unsightly. It's called harem pants. And it never did anyone's figure any favors. I can tell you, I wore some. Once only. To try. I was young and stupid.
Brief !
So the inseam measurement
This is what we need to be attentive to.
“Low waist”: very small amount, you can see the hips; "medium size": moderate amount, this is the most common these days (the fork is normally a little lower than here); “high waist”: the belt is at the level of the navel, the amount is long.
There are also, of course, pants that fit around the natural waist (higher than the navel). These are the true high waists from a tailoring point of view.
James Stewart wearing high-waisted pants in the tailored sense of the term. It makes fabric...
But to speak in contemporary language, let us stay with this diagram and the three versions it offers.
I would like to point out that these three ways of wearing pants are only indicative. There are not three, there are a thousand! And a thousand more! But these are the paradigms that we can take in order to understand ourselves well here.
When you have more legs than bust...
...and we're pretty big
Here is a chino worn rather low or medium waist. If you have long legs and are tall, this is the solution. Visually, we lengthen the bust. We reduce the impression of height. (Photo Credits: The Sartorialist)
Visually, you need to lengthen the bust and shorten the legs . For that :
- Choose a low waist.
- Opt for pants that do not break or break slightly.
- Do not wear short jackets (on the contrary, they should cover your buttocks).
- Pay attention to the sleeves of your shirts, sweaters, jackets which should not appear too short.
- For mismatched outfits, choose dark at the bottom and light at the top.
...and we are rather small
Visually, you need to highlight this leg length but not over-emphasize it :
- Mid-waisted pants will pay tribute to them.
- It should be rather short or straight without any breakage.
When you have more bust than legs...
I don't know his size, but he does everything to appear taller: high-waisted pants, cut short, cuffed high on the bust.
...and we're pretty big
Well, what you need to do is rebalance your figure :
- Choose a high waist.
- The length of your pants should not be too short but not too baggy either. That it falls straight without breaking is a good idea.
...and we are rather small
It's a little more problematic here:
- You need a high waist, that’s indisputable.
- The pants should be short (at least fall straight without the slightest break).
- Favor short jackets.
- If you are wearing a jacket, it should not be too long. But too short is counterproductive. It must stop at just the right length to balance the two masses up/down.
The principle is not difficult to grasp.
A silhouette must be easily readable by the person looking at you. Therefore, the two parts that compose it (the top and the bottom) must not be disproportionate. So, depending on your body shape and the natural distribution of your body between these two parts, you need to rebalance in a certain way.
My friend Kamoshita is a good student. His pants are mid-rise.
If you're average to tall and have a well-balanced bust and legs: do whatever you want (as long as you don't go low-rise). The low waist, in fact, serves to shorten the long legs of long men.
the medium size is easy to wear for most people.
When you have a lot of belly
I'm talking here about those who really have a lot of belly. I insist. Because the others, those who have a little, know very well how to adapt to the pants that we find ready-to-wear.
In the past, when potbellied men went to the tailor, the tailor made pants with a natural waist that these men wore with suspenders. We think of Hitchcock, Churchill or even Oliver Hardy from the comic duo Laurel and Hardy.
The character of Pappy O'Daniel, in the foreground, in O'Brother by the Coen brothers. The plot takes place in the 1930s in the United States.
This silhouette being quite dated, nowadays it is appropriate to use a slightly less radical method: pants that are high in the back and low in the front. That is to say pants with a slanted waistband.
When you really have a belly, it's clear that the perfect pair of pants can be found in a tailor's workshop. If you have the budget, time, and a tailor nearby, it's likely they'll become your favorite pair of pants.
The case of jeans
Yes, some jeans will fit you better than others depending on the length of the leg . But if you're short with short legs and can't find high-waisted jeans, that's not really a problem.
Certainly you will appear a little packed, but this is the silhouette induced by wearing jeans. Nothing too shocking.
If you want a James Dean look, 501 to the navel, white t-shirt with pocket tucked into the jeans, rage in your stomach, that's entirely possible too.
In short, we happily forgive a person jeans that are poorly suited to their body shape , rather than dress pants, because the former is less rare and its style codes more dissolute.
Straight jeans, worn like James Dean. (Photo credits: Garcon Jon)
And I must say that I don't particularly like denim fabric that has been cut into the shape of pleated, pleated dress pants. In my humble opinion, this does not work. There is too much study, too much care given to a painting that wants to be rebellious, nonchalant, even neglected.
But still: run away from low-rise jeans, poor fools ! Unless you're a giant with giant legs.
The final word...
It must be said, once you find the right pants, you feel like you want to pile all the pants you've ever worn into a dumpster, set them on fire and watch the flames of truth feast on your skin. wool and cotton of these poorly cut traitors.
Otherwise, if you are one of those people who have what we call "greatness of soul", tell yourself that this is life and move on. To each his own style.
Because then, we realize with discernment that all these pants which seemed to us to do the trick, are in fact admirably cut for people cut differently.
The good news is that from this blessed day a very exciting future opens up for you. Because from now on, you will know the difference between pants that fit you and ones that would suit someone else better. And that’s still a big advantage over most people.
