Celebs No Longer Wear Pants, Apparently

Within days of reports about her (latest) split from NBA star Devin Booker, Kendall Jenner was seen walking the streets in a chic navy sweater, heels, and ultra-sheer tights as pants. Twitter had thoughts, of course—the debate primarily centered around whether the look was something akin to Princess Di’s “revenge dress” or more of a cry for help. Personally, I saw it both ways: The outfit was inevitably flattering on Jenner’s body, but at the same time, the woman was outside her home sans pants post-breakup—if I did the same, I imagine everyone in my life would look on with concerned empathy (read: pity).

But in recent weeks since Jenner first debuted the pantsless look and even posted it to her Instagram grid, she seems to have influenced celebs and fellow style icons ranging from Dua Lipa and Hailey Bieber to Christina Aguilara and the TikTok girlies, too. Tights-as-pants and just no pants, period, featured heavily at Paris Fashion Week last month too, and Vogue has identified the look as a spring 2023 trend to watch out for. Of course, it’s unclear as yet whether this will wind up being a trend for real people that you’ll catch suburbanites in your hometown sporting at the grocery store, but I say: Let’s just drop trou and go for it.

Between this and the Naked Dress renaissance, I think being playful with what parts of our bodies we choose to show and not show always makes for fun fashion. If you’re mentally preparing for this look to be everywhere come spring and seeking some inspo for how to wear it to Target, allow me to help.

For reference, here is the look that started it all. I don’t hate it. It certainly compliments Jenner’s body type as a towering 5'10" supermodel—I just have to think I, a non-5'10" woman, would feel ridiculous walking around in this. Notably, before Jenner strutted outside her house in this look, the exact fit debuted on the runway for Bottega Veneta last fall, and IMO, it worked on the runway too.

Here is Camila Mendes without a shirt or pants—just an oversized leather jacket, black lingerie, loafers, shades, and vibes. The look is substantially more casual than Kendall’s, and, aided by Mendes’ extremely chill demeanor, I’m almost convinced anyone could pull this off as long as they managed to present as this chill and confident doing so.

German model and influencer Caroline Daur also took the tights-as-pants look to nature’s runway (the streets of Paris during fashion week) with stockings substantially more sheer than Jenner’s. I’m personally obsessed with the look, but it’s the elegance of the knee-length feather coat and overall Black Swan vibe that really sells it for me.

Here’s a bold one from Italian designer and model Christina Ferragni at Paris Fashion Week last month. The sharp cone boobs of her blouse may steal the show, but please note that the woman’s polkadot stockings are, again, substituting for pants.

I am actually quite a fan of how the younger KarJenner styled this one—the vibe is as laid back as a pants-less look should be, with a coat hastily thrown over the whole white-briefs-and-sheer-tights number, seemingly as a very stylish afterthought. It’s unpretentious until you realize the entire fit probably cost more than a whole year’s salary for the average person.

Bella Hadid is constantly pioneering new trends in off-duty model, streetwear looks, and this from last fall was certainly an outfit. Here, the model quite literally substitutes tighty-whities for pants, and somehow makes it work with a black and blue, oversized leather jacket. I am once again uncertain how this outfit would appear on an ordinary person, but, again, it seems to boil down to confidence. If you feel comfortable galavanting about town wearing white boyshorts in lieu of pants, go for it, I guess!

Earlier this month, Emily Ratajkowski hit up New York Fashion Week, also minus pants, in an oversized blazer and platform boots, and you know what—sure! It’s a look, and the print pattern of the blazer certainly livens things up enough to distract from the lack of accompanying trousers.

Rochelle Humes attended the 2022 Fashion Awards last fall in an off-the-shoulder white jacket, some Rainforest Cafe sparklers, tights, and stilletos. The silver and glitter were a real ode to the holiday season, but in the cold light of February, I struggle to picture this outfit working in a non-holiday context.

The Coperni Spring 2023 runway managed to make going pants-free an elegant, classy affair, pairing button-down dress shirts with cut-off, high-waisted underwear. Talk about business casual.

Victoria Beckham and Del Core, respectively, also doled out pants-free looks. In contrast with Coperni, their looks relied on chic over-coats and sheer stockings for looks that feel a lot less like business-wear and more like a night out—probably somewhere very seedy and underground.

Another runway moment for fall 2023, this time in very bright neon: The Sergio Hudson Winter/Fall 2023 show earlier this month also featured a model wearing a blazer and briefs as a fully formed fit. With any luck, we’ll all be dressed like this—in neon yellow, pantsless, with six-inch platform heels—come fall.

Hailey Bieber is many things—Justin Bieber’s wife, host of a popular (?) YouTube vlog series that films from her bathroom, and a devoted student of the Kendall Jenner school of fashion. Here she is last month taking a page from Jenner’s tights-as-pants, off-duty model look. And I think she makes it work—the oversized black leather to contrast the obviously very fitted tights really pop together.

Ariana Grande has famously never been much of a pants-wearer, and good for her. Embracing the fact that she is literally 5'0" and everything looks baggy and enormous on her, the singer spent much of the 2010s walking the streets and even attending red carpets in oversized hoodies and thigh-high boots. Grande’s greatest legacy, in addition to all her varying chart-topping hits, will probably be her legendary contribution to the couples’ Halloween costume market: her in a baggy, bright yellow hoodie and tall boots, licking a lollipop, thirstily ogling ex Pete Davidson.

Here’s Solange Knowles attending the Beyoncé: Life is But a Dream red carpet in 2013 in what appears to be an oversized, white satin shirt and black heeled sandals. The lack of oh-so distracting pants really brings your focus to her rings and bracelet, so I’m convinced this has have been intentional and not at all an oopsie. Solange was way ahead of her time.

Here are Hailey Bieber and Joan Smalls emerging from Gigi Hadid’s birthday party in 2018, with Smalls wearing tights as pants too. Like Kim K, she deserves points for originality and finally delivering some goddamn color to this trend. But I, again, am unsure about how crop tops pair with this look, and the boots just make a mess of everything.

Aaaand we’re back to the Jenners! Here’s Kylie last December, matching semi-sheer tights with a massive black leather coat. I remain a fan of how tights-as-pants pair with baggy outerwear, but like the rest of these looks, this one could have benefited from a pop of color. The way everyone looks dressed for a funeral, I’m struggling to associate this trend with any emotion but sadness and dread.

As a friendly reminder that this look didn’t come entirely out-of-nowhere, here’s a throwback for you: Bella Hadid on the Mugler runway for spring 2020, proving the whole pants-less thing was made for this time of the year. Hadid posted more angles of the fit to her Instagram, and let’s just say you’re going to want to see this from the back, too.

Thankfully, here’s Kendall very much getting the color memo in this bright blue, all-sheer Mugler look. I love the futuristic, shimmery element of this—it’s giving sci-fi alien princess, especially since sci-fi alien princesses coincidentally seem rendered and catered specifically to delight the male gaze.