Anyone else not like bootcut jeans?

[Sonotkylie]

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 ...

Here's the thing. After the 70s I said I'd never wear flares again. When they came back in the 90s, I laughed. Ten or fifteen years ago, I said exactly the same about skinnies. Each and every time, I've changed my mind. And yes of course that's partly because I'm a bit of a fashion victim but it's also because, when a jeans shape changes, everything else eventually changes too: shoes, tops, jackets - they all shift to go with the new silhouette. And sooner or later, you see a great jumper or pair of shoes and you realise that what you really need to set it off are some new jeans.....

So people can say they're not going to change as much as they like and good luck to you but this time I won't be joining you.

I agree Flo- I was a late adopter of skinnies, because they really don’t suit me (oddly I was fine with leggings!), but as you say, eventually the whole outfit looks wrong. I bought some great flares last year in gap, I think they look good, but it was really hard to style them as all my tops and shoes looked wrong! And although I think partly it is the fashion business pushing change for cash, I also think we just get bored, and even in an advertising vacuum I think different trends would catch on- like in primary school when suddenly all the girls roll their socks, or wear socks over tights, in a weird micro trend way!

They are the devils work.

the flappy bottom material looks weird and they make my (not very long) legs look short and dumpy.

Ah, this reminds me of the mid-Noughties where we all thought that skinny jeans were incredibly unflattering, that the bootcut shape "balanced out your hips" and were perplexed that anyone would wear skinny jeans unless they were size 8.

I had some gorgeous boot cut jeans in about 2001, very fitted down to the knee and then flared out, they really hugged the arse and looked great. I loved bootcut so much.
I did not enjoy the mile walk to college on a wet day though!

I'm happy to embrace either trend but I've actually only just thrown away my last pair of boot cut jeans.

Also, as a taller lady the thing I like about skinny jeans is that they're almost always long enough, boot cut jeans I have to wear a 36 leg or they end up swinging round my ankles.

It's amazing how much of what we think of as "flattering" is actually just "makes you look normal and unremarkable, because that's what everyone wears" and how much of "unflattering" is "makes you stand out, and once I've noticed you I will notice your flaws".

Bootcut can look lovely on some but on me, well, I look like a Shire Horse.

I don't like skinny cut jeans on me either and only wear boyfriend and looser cut straight leg jeans.

Swap bootcut with skinny and this is exactly what people were saying in 2005!

In 1991 a group of friends and I were in Melbourne. We came across, what in hindsight, was a pair of early bootcut jeans.

However, our just-out-of-the-80s eyes saw 'flares'. We thought they was so funny (read: ugly) that we took photos of all of us in front of them.

No way would I be caught dead in those trews.

Roll on another 5 or so years, and bootcuts ruled the roost.

Come the mid-00s, and I was horrified at the arrival of skinnies - thought they looked desperately fashion victim, and flattered no-one (parsnip legs). Prided myself on it being about style rather than fashion, and stuck with my bootcuts, which flattered me. Until I eventually succumbed to the skinny.

Now, the pendulum is swinging back yet again. Plus ça change.... 👖

were so funny

I have been buying Gap's perfect boot jeans for years. I am very tall but with wide hips. Skinny jeans have always made my legs look like parsnips so I have stuck with boot cut over years (despite trying to dress vaguely fashionably otherwise). The Gap ones are not too flappy, the slight widening just offsets the width of my hips and makes me look more balanced.

I'm sure it's just what you're used to.

Trills and Floisme - I think you have it. It's about the whole package as well as adjusting our jeans goggles.

I quite like the blonde lady's outfit (grey jumper and black trousers).

I hate them. I only like straight cut or flares. I begrudgingly wear skinnies with tall boots as well.

I am the same as you, small and slightly curvy but they make me look frumpy! I definitely prefer jeggings or skinny jeans.

I generally dress like this, and I just cannot imagine how awful a chunky knit and a pair of Dr Martens would look with bootcut jeans. I'd look like the Michelin Man.

Link

Ah Dowagercuntess. I like all of them! That was the type of image that led me to the bootcut. But I bet their legs are already 3x longer than mine - so maybe bootcut DO make your legs look shorter but it's emphasised on shorter pins!

I believe you tried "wrong" bootcut jeans. I wear bootcut and flare jeans mainly with mocs and loafers and they look very flattering!
However, my jeans are stretch - and that makes huge difference compare to 100% cotton.

See I can't look at those photos and not think 'Liz Hurley circa 2003' which isn't really my style!
I think one of my main dislikes of bootcuts comes from being a curvy woman - I hate the idea that I ought to be 'minimising' my hips and bum and thighs I feel more confident wearing skinnies or leggings because to me it says 'I like my body, this is what it looks like and I'm not apologising for that'. I feel like the whole ethos of bootcuts (at least in the early 2000s) was to 'balance flaws' out by making everyones' lower bodies look roughly the same shape

I think they work better in a trouser (and with quite a big flare) than a jean. As per dowagers pictures - its the softness of the fabric makes it work. They are all beautiful long limbed creatures.

Softer fabric makes sense too. I will wait for the flare revival ...

Agreed - I still think Liz Hurley or Victoria Beckham in the early 90s when I see those photos

But I also totally take on board that this is very much influenced by conditioning of wider trends

Though each of those examples is worn with a heel - boot cuts tend to need a heel so as not to trail along the ground, and that's just neither practical nor desirable for me

I'm a tall-ish size 6-8 so I'm aware that my body shape is one that's probably more flattered by skinnies than boot cuts anyway

But I can't imagine wearing a boot cut with a Chelsea boot or flat brogues, for example

(I'm one of those arseholes who wears skinnies turned up to show a bit of ankle, however, so I'm sure I will be desperately out of fashion when the trends change!)