Fashion never really changes. Lauren Hutton, the American model who graced more than 25 Vogue covers, said that: “Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.”
Everyone’s chosen style is what becomes fashion of the day. And so it goes that culottes were high fashion statements of the late 1990s. Culottes were wide-legged, mid-calf cropped pants, several inches shy of the ankles. This waist-defining, leg-elongating androgynous (unisex as they were worn by men in 15th century France) flared pants, were best worn with ‘take-me-to-heaven’ high heels.
These roomy skirts are now back with a different name; palazzo pants they’re called. You will spot lasses in lace, smudgy-printed, cotton canvas, denims, wallflower and short culottes.
Culottes matched well with tumbo-cuts which, as the name suggests, were sleeveless tops with hems cutting halfway round the tummy to reveal a chick’s mukonyo (belly-button)!
Tumbo-cuts have also made a comeback in another name: crop tops! And they can be off-shoulder, mock or scoop neck, laced up or front knot tumbo cuts.
