Comfy yet stylish

Harem pants are what majority of the college-going students swear by. They are comfortable, laid-back and can be effortlessly paired with kurtas and T-shirts. But these ‘laid-back’ pants are generally not worn to fancy dinners or dressy occasions to avoid a ‘weird’ or ‘sloppy’ look. Well, that was until models Kylie and Kendall Jenner rocked the harem pants-look, making people from all age-groups dig deep in their closets to find their comfortable-but-not-considered-classy pants which they thought shouldn’t be worn in fashion-conscious circles.
Here’s some advice from the fashion industry to make sure you too get the ‘harem heaven’ look right.

Fashion stylist Tanya Gupta, who admits that she “lives in harem pants and doesn’t remember the last time she wore jeans”, says, “I have worn harem pants to work, party dinners and even at the Lakme Fashion Week recently, where I wore them with crop tops and funky accessories. There’s a lot you can do with these pants; when it comes to Indian wear, you can wear them as salwars and for the Western twist you can wear them with high-low tunics, high heels etc. There’s one look, where you can wear a top which is cropped in the front and is quite long from the back… I tried this out and it looked good.”

Tanya likes to experiment with basic clothing and then punk it up with accessories. “Accessories will make your harem pant outfit stand out. One more thing to be kept in mind is the length. If you are not that tall and you wear short harem pants, then it will kill your height,” says Tanya. Celebrity stylist Neeraja Kona feels that even though harem pants are primarily chosen for comfort and convenience, with the right pairing they can even be made to look stylish.

“You can wear a black harem pant, white tank top, statement necklace, heels, a sling bag and you are good to go. Some other looks can be printed harem pants with block colour tops as that will give you an option to experiment with different coloured heels or wedges,” she says. Neeraja’s advice is that everyone should definitely have the staple black harem pants. “Harem pants are suitable for all body types, but black is in general a very flattering colour so you must have that in your wardrobe. I find them very comfortable and usually wear them with heels and a sleek high pony,” she adds.