Thinking about Culottes or No Culottes?

Front view of outfit with leather culottes with Jones New York polka dot shirt, pearl necklace, statement belt, Gloria Vanderbilt pumps (all own)

Post author:Nicole Mölders
Reading time:4 mins read

The goal of this post is to help you make a decision (based on your lifestyle and personal style) whether or not to jump the bandwagon of the (perennial) culottes trend.

Contents

I Am in Love with Culottes
Reasons to Skip the Culottes Trend
How to Style Culottes Work Appropriate
Taking Inspirations from a Style Icon
Style Culottes with a Cropped Jacket for Your Outerwear
Outfit of the Day

I Am in Love with Culottes

Culottes are a weird thing. I love their being partly pants, partly skirt. Yep, they are sort of odd and edgy, which I love. Furthermore, I adore culottes, especially, when they are in leather. I always liked them when they had a fashion moment, but I never bought a pair. The more I think about it, the less I understand it. Especially, given that I love wearing leather in spring, summer, fall and winter.

midlife woman in polka dot shirt with culottes — Leather culottes with Jones New York polka dot shirt, pearl necklace, statement belt, and Gloria Vanderbilt pumps (all own)

Reasons to Skip the Culottes Trend

The thing that holds me back, I guess, is rational. I can come up with much more reasons why not to get a pair of culottes than reasons why to get a pair:

They are a trend one cannot rework when it’s over. 🙁
Leather culottes are expensive, especially in (burgundy red, brown, or forest green) leather. :/
Culottes are hard to adjust to the right fit and length, i.e. the search will take a lot of time (and by then the trend may be already over 🙁 ).
They are hard to style as they are the fashion statement (read risky here).

The only argument in favor of them is that I love them <3.

How to Style Culottes Work Appropriate

The first time I wore them, I decided to go for a simple straight forward look. A winter-white cashmere sweater with a long printed scarf that picked up the black and white and added a pop of purple (see next photo). The next time, I will go a bit more daring.

mature woman in leather culottes — Outfit details: Black custom-made leather culottes, GNW tights, GNW Luxe cashmere wool sweater, Oscar de la Rente scarf, quartz pendant necklace, Kieselstein Cord belt and buckle, Hermes collier de chien bangle, and Harley Davidson booties (all own)

Taking Inspirations from a Style Icon

Culottes are as easy to style as a skirt. In this outfit example, I went for a modern version of Katharine Hepburn style with my leather culottes. Here I wear culottes with a striped shirt as a top and for work I added a tweed blazer.

fashion blogger over 40 wearing leather culottes with a tweed jacket and shirt — Outfit details: Anne Klein tweed jacket, J. Crew shirt, leather culottes, unbranded pantyhose, blue topaz necklace and bracelet, amethyst bracelet, Hermes collier de chien bangle, Coach bag, DvF sunglasses and Christian Louboutin pumps (all own)

Style Culottes with a Cropped Jacket for Your Outerwear

For the commute to work I added my short leopard-diamond jacket, gloves, a green beret and green bag. A long and/or wide coat would overwhelm a petite frame like mine. Even for a tall woman a long coat will be tricky with tea-length culottes. It’s all about balance and proportions.

An great outfit needs an eye for balancing proportions. #agelessstyle Click To Tweet

midlife woman wearing culottes with a winter jacket — Custom-made leather culottes, leopard-diamond print short jacket, LeatherCoatsEtc green beret, green SAK bag, GNW tight, tan LeatherCoatsEtc gloves, unbranded scarf, and Harley Davidson booties (all own)

Ditch old fashion rules. Wear brown and black together. So chic. #agelessstyle #dressyourbest Click To Tweet

Do you have a fashion item that you really would like to own, but never bought? Which one is it? Why did you not buy it? Ok, too expensive I fully understand, but I mean – other than that. Send me an email or a tweet.

Photos: G. Kramm