Balloon pants have been a pair of pants (and in general) a viral look this weekend, that has been Sam Smith’s at the 2023 Brit Awards. The artist, who dares with everything, chose to wear a shiny black outfit with a puffed effect at the shoulders and legs that generated a flood of comments on social networks. The volume called out especially in the case of the garment. Harikrishnan, is an emerging fashion designer who went viral in 2020 thanks to his puffy pants De él as part of his signing, Harri, presented at her graduation show at the London College of Fashion a very wide thigh-length latex garment that tapered towards the ankle. Her motifs, in white and green or red stripes, underscored the balloon-like silhouette for which she has become famous.
Every unusual model on the red carpet doesn’t take long for social networks to pull from the archives a counterpart that has been worn long before. In the case of Sam Smith, some have already commented that David Bowie anticipated (the iconic outfit with which the Japanese creator Kansái Yamamoto dressed him for the Aladdin Sane Tour in 1973). The new character that Bowie embodied wore a Black striped jumpsuit that also blurred the figure of the British singer, inspired by the costumes of the Kabuki theater.
Because of their looseness, they could evoke hakama pants, those with such wide legs that they almost look like skirt pants. In the western wardrobe, we have also assimilated other similar styles, such as harem pants, just as wide but tight at the bottom, which the eighteenth-century Turkish trend appropriated and popularized by Paul Poiret in 1911 thanks to his orientalist look.
The almost aerostatic garment that we saw on Smith is not an anecdotal note on the red carpet. In the autumn 2023 collections, we have already seen a similar design among proposals as disparate as that of Thom Browne or Alaïa. In the first mentioned, these volumes seem like another logical bet from the Browne label. Inspired by The Little Prince, the North American creator dressed model Debra Shaw in a pilot-style jumpsuit, with articulated sleeves and padded legs. On the other hand, in that parade that Pieter Mulier presented at his house, he included several outfits made up of a version of these ‘balloon’ pants, with a resounding line. The design in question redrew the figure very much in line with what Azzedine Alaïa himself did., so inspired by the sculptural creations of Charles James in the 50s.
This article was originally published on Vogue Spain
