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Original poster

Anyone else not like bootcut jeans?

177 replies

Sonotkylie · 15/01/2018 14:33

Just that really? I keep reading that they are back and really flattering so I tried a pair of slim bootcut jeans. Good fit but the flappy bottom material looks weird and they make my (not very long) legs look short and dumpy. Is it just conditioning? I am small and fairly curvy, so I thought these would be made for me but apparently not ...

OP posts:
userofthiswebsite · 15/01/2018 19:41

It's funny isn't it...
In the 90s it was definitely all, unless you're very very slim, wear bootcut jeans as they balance out your thighs as they go outwards at the bottom, but, for me, I've always thought my legs look slimmer in skinny jeans...
I don't know... That was the advice for years and years and years that bootcut was your friend if you're more than an 8/10...

Moussemoose · 15/01/2018 19:44

It depends on the shape of your leg. What looks good on your leg makes my legs look like parsnips.

Dress to flatter not to follow fashion.

Eminybob · 15/01/2018 19:53

I hope this isn’t the beginning of the end for skinnies, I love mine. But I’m quite slim legged and hipped (compared to the rest of me) so I think they suit my shape.

It took me ages though to be persuaded out of my bootcuts originally. I wore them all through my teens and early 20s so the idea of skinnies was horrifying to me!

I’ll never look back though, bootcuts just make me think of my mum now, as she never got the skinny memo.

Beansonapost · 15/01/2018 20:08

Another one here!

I love skinny!

Willing to wear straight.

I wore them back in the 000... but I only had one pair and preferred tights/leggings.

I have to wear bootcut with heels... but they also make me look chubby/thick and shorter and are not flattering on my bum either.

I hope they go away soon!

Minestheoneinthegreen · 15/01/2018 20:34

I had the most gorgeous French connection boot cuts that were the most perfect jeans ever. When skinnies came In, I was last to the party because I refused to give up the bootcut. I still have them but I also have an additional 3 stone, so my chub dictates my bootcut days will not return.

RubbishMantra · 15/01/2018 20:41

Ugh, can't bear them. Especially the half mast ones doing the rounds now. The only way they do the leg lengthening thing they're supposed to do is if worn v. long, with the hem finishing on the toe. Otherwise they flap around sadly, looking as if one is waiting for a flood. I was v. happy when (early 2000s?) skinny jeans became widely available.

Doesn't make a difference to me now anyway - I eschew anything with a diggy-in waistband. Strictly joggers and harem pants only for me!

CountFosco · 15/01/2018 20:42

I've been through 2 cycles of skinnies, when they were 'drainpipes' in the 80s and didn't contain lycra so were a nightmare to get over your heel and then the recent one. I wore leggings or skirts with DMs in the 90s (so no bootlegs) and really only started wearing trousers regularly in the late 00s when I had smart wide legged trousers for work. Personally I don't like that 'tight on the thighs, baggy over the lower leg' look of bootcuts and prefer pretty much every other shape of leg, I have skinnies, mom jeans, straight legged, and today I wore my lovely woolen wide legged trousers. I have a pair of bootcuts in my wardrobe but they make me look short and fat and unfashionable so they go back every time. And I'm a size 10.

oobedobe · 15/01/2018 20:48

I prefer skinnies, would consider a pair of baby bootcut (which is really a kick flare), but I don't see us going back to 90s style bootcuts overall.

There is just way more trouser choice now than we had in the 90s; joggers, leggings/jeggings, ponte pants, wide-leg, harems etc so I don't see the need for skinnies to go away.

Skinnies also pair better with any shoe style; trainers, chelsea boots, knee high boots, ballet shoes, sandals, heels - so much more versatile than boot cuts, which drag on the floor if not the right length.

MikeUniformMike · 15/01/2018 21:02

I liked tapered trousers in the late 90s. Then they became so old fashioned. I have kept them and wonder if I'll still fit into them. I like harem pants and wear them around the house.

MikeUniformMike · 15/01/2018 21:02

I liked tapered trousers in the late 90s. Then they became so old fashioned. I have kept them and wonder if I'll still fit into them. I like harem pants and wear them around the house.

MikeUniformMike · 15/01/2018 21:02

I liked tapered trousers in the late 90s. Then they became so old fashioned. I have kept them and wonder if I'll still fit into them. I like harem pants and wear them around the house.

Doobigetta · 15/01/2018 23:38

I don't think bootcuts (at least in their late 90s/early noughties form) will be properly dominant again, because they only look good with heels, and I think more and more women just can't be arsed wearing heels.

HolyShet · 15/01/2018 23:49

I never wore jeans for all the bootcut years the first time round

Hated them then, hate them now - and the "jeans and a nice top" for going out look (and that's coming back too). Vom

Featherstep · 16/01/2018 00:02

I still think my bootcuts worn in the 00s were super flattering, but I would never wear them today, it just looks all wrong. I had a pair of bootcut trousers from Jane Norman (!) that were my sexiest trousers ever (looks back wistfully at 20s figure).

Last year I charity bagged a pair of Gap long and lean, they did look good but argh the wet hems!

A good point also about the length only fitting heels - I remember agonising about which shoes go with which pair, an inch too short and they look awful.

GrockleBocs · 16/01/2018 00:13

Oh goodness I need to bulk buy skinny & straight jeans now ahead of the drought.
I railed against the flares of my 70s childhood, enjoyed the skin tights of the 80s and was delighted in the mid 2000s when skinny jeans reappeared.
For some reason almost all boot cut (and wide straight) trousers look flappy on me.

Featherstep · 16/01/2018 00:14

Oh, I also remember some time in the early 00s, when a friend first started wearing proper skinnies I was struck by how parsnip-like and unflattering and uncomfortable they looked.

(I still think most skinnies are uncomfortable, mind)

KnitFastDieWarm · 16/01/2018 00:27

I remember buying a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of leggings in 2006 and feeling wildly daring and out there Grin
These days I'm more a fan of straight legs, but I don't think I could go back to bootcut - too much fabric flapping around.

clumsyduck · 16/01/2018 00:48

Another bootcut fan in the 00s
This thread has made me laugh as I too was aghast at the thought of a straight legged jean when slim/ skinnies came in . Thought they looked horrendous and "something my mum would have worn in the 80s"

Luckily I can pull of skinny jeans and you would have to prise them off me before I'd wear bootcut again . Bootcuts did seem to flatter my mum tho like make it more curvy not sure how tho Confused

clumsyduck · 16/01/2018 00:49

Bum obviously not mum !

bananafish81 · 16/01/2018 05:22

Boot cuts give me shivers of the 90s/00s (my experience was exactly that of hours @BluthsFrozenBananas)

I don't want to look like a skanky student again with frayed bottoms trailing along

Pointy boots under boots cuts look like Victoria Beckham circa 2001

Round flat boots look frumpy as hell

Trainers look like a student

I'm afraid I am a victim of conditioning as rolled up skinnies with ankle boots / trainers / bricked are my staple, and far more flattering on me

Looser fit straight leg boyfriend jean at the most for me

bananafish81 · 16/01/2018 05:24

Bricked = brogues!

TheDowagerCuntess · 16/01/2018 07:02

Rachel Stevens and Victoria Beckham were the queens of bootcut jeans in the late 90s, early 00s.

Bootcuts were thought to be universally flattering, so it's definitely conditioning that we now see them as unflattering.

Skinnies are seriously unflattering on a significant proportion of wearers.

I don't think I'm quite ready to go back to bootcuts, but I have seen some really good outfits with them on Pinterest. So it may just be around the corner.

I was definitely a Long and Lean devotee back in the day.

NiceViper · 16/01/2018 07:11

If I've bought fantastic boots, I want them to be on show!

AuntieStella · 16/01/2018 07:18

"Bootcuts were thought to be universally flattering, so it's definitely conditioning that we now see them as unflattering."

Yes, there might be something in that. Because, as I posted above, I simply stopped buying jeans when bootcuts were all that was available (I think I found one pair of acceptable straightlegs in several years) so my view - which is that they were so hideously unflattering that I wouldn't spend anything on them - didn't matter to the fashion industry.

I'm stockpiling skinnies! I don't want to be jean-less for years again.

And it's also why I post about the need for the basic jeans shapes to be staples, which are always available regardless of trend. Though of course as the fashion industry has a major interest in convincing us to buy new clothes, even when current ones are in perfectly good nick, I expect the cyclical nature will continue.

Original poster
Sonotkylie · 16/01/2018 07:18

Oops! I forgot I had posted. Thank you for all the comments. I am not missing something then. And I had forgotten about wet hems! I too wore bootcut forever in my youth and beyond and thought skinnies were for tall skinny people until I tried a pair ... l too loved long and lean - although I don't think my less than flat stomach would now. I actually like flares but they aren't around at the moment. Bootcut are neither one nor the other to me. So.... Do we really think they are going to make a comeback?

OP posts: