It was a welcome variation after almost 2 decades of skinny fit dominance.
Trouble is, there's no variation from the v v v high waists now, so in a similar vein, we still have little choice. I wasn't a skinny trouser/jeans fan, so the relaxed styles were a godsend, but it is the waist heights that puzzle me.
Worst of all, for me, is how it has taken over pyjama bottoms. I prefer how they used to sit, straight legs with flat mid high waistbands that just didn't pull on the skin. Now they are all super high rise with scratchy exposed elastic, so bunch up around me with tons of waist fabric when I sit down.
And they seem to have taken over everything, growing higher by the year. Now I can't find a sensible middle (what used to be high!) rise anywhere apart from young teen stores, and as someone who used to buy a lot of stuff from Toast, I can't get past the inordinately massive wide legs on everything and enormous elastic waistbands that sit like a rolled up carpet against my ribs. They don't even sell anything tapered anymore.
What do others think? Is it going too far? A high waist used to look neat and decent, but they have really gone nuts now.
I do believe the stores are stuffed full of elastic waists to minimise customer returns. Also probably connected to higher BMI's and are easier/cheaper to manufacture, without having to worry about shaping or higher standards of tailoring.
Most of these offerings are in the £145 mark, and if you go higher, it seems to get worse - consider brands like Oska for instance, over £200/300 for a drawstring sack. Even if there are nice shapes and fabrics, the 'duffle bag' style waists look cheap.
If they don't want to put buttons on things (it's a fair enough idea) then why not create more flat, elastic waistbands that streamline the belly and hip area without the dreadful pull string bunching?
Thank you for listening to my grump 