LOUIS VUITTONRALPH LAURENJW ANDERSON(^10) BALMAIN
O F
THE
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VETEMENTS
DRIES VAN NOTEN
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108 ELLE AUSTRALIA
Next came the formal culotte – “The New Party
Dress?” trumpeted a headline in The Times in 2015,
“It’s Culottes!” – which Victoria Beckham made me
want, but which she also demonstrated truly
requires a well-turned ankle or a very high heel if
you’re not to look oddly foreshortened by them.
And as the rule with heel height is always
“whatever you can walk in before your knees lock
and you start walking like a primordial man”,
I couldn’t quite make the proportions work for me.
My maximum heel height is, after all, more in
the realm of a pump, whereas Victoria could
run from an explosion, over cobblestones,
with a child on her hip, in six-inch needle-heels
- and not look down once.
But then, just this year, as though designers had
themselves observed my falling ever so slightly
foul of previous offerings, they arrived as one at
the Party Pant. Which on first glance, appears to be
a solution to it all; the answer to every after-eight
question we’ve ever contended with. Stovepipe or
cigarette, sleek and cropped or flowing wide-leg,
metallic or embellished, examples of evening pants
were everywhere at the AW16-17 shows.
Balmain did theirs in pink-and-white punk
candy stripes, as well as ruffled or spliced
with mesh. Ralph Lauren gave a luxe take on
heavy brocade, saved from looking mother-of-the-
bride-ish by the rail-thin cut of them. Michael Kors
Collection put every penny into sequins and even
Isabel Marant, not generally a go-to for night-time,
created a pair so quicksilver, the model appeared
to have legs of liquid mercury. Then, as well as
sending out versions of the wide-leg palazzo-y
pant that’s longer and more universally flattering
than the culotte and has already been seen on
celebrity early-adopters such as Karlie Kloss
and Constance Jablonski, Dries Van Noten
pulled half a dozen ideas together in a gold
lamé suit, with cropped trousers and a tailored
jacket – and the results, feel free to verify via
Google Images, were typically perfect.
While I’m still toggling between two choices in
my Matches Fashion basket, I know this for sure
about the Party Pant: I will have no need this year
for Spanx. There will be no imperative to fake tan in
a hot, sticky hurry while a plus-one waits dutifully
downstairs. They are the answer to ambiguous
dress codes, being at once festive, formal, cocktail-
ish, smart-casual and at-home elegant.
Technically a separate, there’s no limit to how
they’ll pair. Cami, silk blouse tucked, AC/DC tee?
Party pants – like the very best guests – are up
for anything. And most importantly, the best bit
of any gathering – the spontaneous dancing
that generally gets going after midnight – will not
be missed out on even once this year because an
outfit doesn’t allow it. Party pants are made for
a tipsy whip and/or nae-nae. Plus, there’s the
insouciant hands-in-pockets, which, if you’re
a nervous enterer, is an added gift.
If you still need to try before you investment-
buy, chain stores will be awash with solid tester
options by, I’d say, December 1. Like any truly new
trend, there will turn out to be a trick to them. Must
you expose the ankle if you aren’t especially tall?
A bit more décolletage than you’d otherwise do to
keep things appropriately sexy? I don’t know yet,
but then it’s always trial and error, instinct, lippie
and an emboldening pre-game champagne. In fact,
when I think back over all Christmas parties past,
that suddenly seems like half the fun. q“THE PARTY PANT APPEARS
TO BE THE ANSWER TO EVERY
AFTER-EIGHT QUESTION WE’VE
EVER CONTENDED WITH”Photography: Gilles Bensimon; Getty Images; Jason Lloyd-EvansISABEL MARANTCHLOÉMICHAEL KORS COLLECTION