We regret to inform you that the trend you love to hate (or hate to love) is steadily returning to the fashion sphere. Get ready because the unhinged skants are back, but honestly, they never left.
If the infamous skirt-pants could talk, I'd like to believe they recite LL Cool J's famous "Mama Said Knock You Out" line — "Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years" — because the chaotic fashion style indeed never went away.
Skants really took off in the 90s, with backing from musicians like Gwen Stefani, B*Witched, and Steps. If you think about it, it was the perfect era to thrive in next to Ross McGowan's OG barely-there dress, TLC's condom fashion, and Lil Kim's pasty jumpsuit.
Of course, no one was leading the skants agenda like the queen of skants herself, Ashley Tisdale, who pushed the craze to new heights with her arguably hectic red carpet moments in the early 2000s.
From micro-mini skirts layered over culottes to midi skirts on top of wide-leg pants, Tisdale was in a skirt-pants lane of her own.
Now we're in the 2010s, and the most famous street stylers are trying to make skants happen like Mean Girls' "fetch," as the wild garment mashup both rose – thanks to the Hadid sisters and Kendall Jenner — and fell throughout the decade.
Fast forward to 2021, skants are starting to sound like "back in my day" as they haven't been heard of for roughly four years. But leave it to the bad gal Rihanna to get the skirt-pants buzzing again.
In September 2021, Rihanna, before the bump, took to the streets of NYC on a rainy night, donning a Junya Watanabe Fall 2021 camo-denim pleated skirt over Matthew Dolan camo cargo trousers, essentially pulling off the head-scratching combo like only Rih could.
Though today's skirt pants are a little more toned-down with their neutral colorways, they still emphasize the outlandish garment hodgepodge nonetheless.
ECTO, W A N T S, Comme des Garçons, and Akris are currently carrying their own skirt-pants, ranging from wrap skirts over flared trousers to mini skirts over leggings.
ALTU — Joseph Altuzarrra's latest gender-free brand — is the latest label to support the skirt-trousers agenda, dropping its own less-chaotic bottoms for $1295.
Yeah, the price made me go whew too. But, for those looking to go subtle with the trend, these may be worth the investment, as I struggled to find a pair of solid black pair of skirt-pants online myself.
Sorry, anti-skantsers. The trend may have calmed a bit from sequined skirts over denim trousers, but the bizarre combo we hate-love is slowly coming back again. It'll fit right in with the modern extreme baggies and pantashoe wave.
