How To Style Pants
I complained about my inability to truly create fits that I love with different pants than my basketcase caldwell pants (the large tan pants I'm wearing today). Internally part of this was a realization that most of my shirts are oversized, and so they are some of my only pants that truly balance that silhouette.
@bishopcorrigan suggested creating this thread to help nail down my issues, and also noted:
think the thing you get from these pants that you don’t get from your others is a well balanced top and bottom half, you’ve got broad shoulders and while I lot of your other pants are fairly wide, these are actually functioning more like flares emphasizing both your waist and giving that wide hem line, you end up with a more satisfying overall shape than your relatively straight wide pantsI've attached fits of pretty much all of my pants, though some of them are older/non-summer fits. Not all of them are good but they do show off my (large) amount of options.
32 Replies
I think in all except for 1 and 2 your torso proportion is very long (bc of oversized shirt) which stands out a lot
Makes the upper half seem a bit unbalanced
ya this is a perpetual issue for me - I need a L-XL for my shoulders/chest, but most L-XL shirts are cut for someone 4+ inches taller than me
and I don't want to have to crop everything i buy
Oh true yeah
Something that indicates waist line might be good idk
Noticing that in your first pic the waist line is very high vs all the other fits. That may be balancing out the effect of your wide shoulders by making the overall width of your whole silhouette smaller
Ya, I need some cropped stuff (I should chop some of my tees) and get some tighter fitting shirts that will tuck better
Are the Caldwells significantly higher rise than even the pants in the second pic?
I do think the higher tuck helps
With the high tuck, the longer layers on top work when open
Post the purple sweater fit that’s the all timer
10 looks good to me, which reminded me of this fit - i think either messing with the number of buttons or going open shirt would help balance out the top half more
No
Almost all of my pants are high rise
In fact I want low rise jeans now cause I don't have any good low rise pants
Yeah I think the 2nd pic is probably decent proportions wise just not as fly off the page exciting
It's the layering of the sweater and shirt in this one
Obv much harder to do in the summer
Nah nah nah, the purple cardigan
This one is good but I like that one more
Uh, you mean
It's black
Hence my confusion
I see it looks purplish tho
Ohhh lighting tricked me
Yeah black often washes out to purple
So it can get wonky with exposure
But ya I did this with my fatigues too
But yeah the proportions on this one are just the right amount of weird for you
It just doesn’t pop without the big silhouette to balance it out
Caldwell-ified
I see the vision
I guess my question is, obviously I would rather not have to buy a bunch of shit to get out of this predicament
Yeah is it possible to fix it with just styling
I think probably
Ya exactly
Like obviously I be copping and I can crop stuff at home but obv there's more than that
I do need to figure out tucks which works against the big shirts (need to get tighter shirts)
I would have to mess around a bit but I think that drop shoulder might help a little, I think thinner belt on the fatigues might help a little, I might try rolling the sleeves on some of your big short sleeve button ups to see how they look shorter (I know the cuffed sleeve isn’t your look but just for the experimentation)
I think the necklace helps consistently
It’s breaking the top half up just enough that it loses some visual weight
Like this one works
Ya I really like that one actually
It didn't get a ton of love but it's clean
Yeah I think the big tee works well and it doesn’t look imbalanced here
Maybe I’m losing my mind but I think the necklace helps
I think the baggy jeans can absolutely work with some styling adjustments
Fatigues I have just personally cooled on quite a bit so I don’t have ideas off the top of my head
Same lmao
I haven't worn mine in a while
Feel like I don't love em with my style anymore
This idea is partly why I started wearing jewelry
Cause like on non-graphic tees like this, I think it needs something extra
And the chains break it up and add visual interest (I want another/to replace my chain, but it's a slow WIP)
I am pretty much always wearing rings too you just can't see that in the photos
this was a fun thread to read as someone who exclusively wears very oversized clothes these days and i really enjoyed the convo 😎👍
i am also cursed with long torso short legs i feel the struggle
high rises, crops, and tucks are definitely our friend if we're looking for that traditional balance in the silhouette
Your fit today is a great example of all big wide looking good