Wide leg pants are very popular right now, and in particular, wide leg linen pants are a great option in the summer! (Really, any type of soft, lightweight pants is great!) Linen is breathable and soft and flexible, making it an awesome alternative to shorts. So, I want to give some tips for how to wear lightweight wide leg pants and also share some wide leg pants outfits you can copy to give you some ideas for how to wear yours!
Linen wide leg pants are classic and timeless. They have been around for as many summers as I can remember in my adult life! Today I’ll be focusing on how to wear wide leg pants, but if you don’t like the wide leg style, linen pants do come in different silhouettes. Also, for pants that wrinkle a bit less than 100% linen, try a linen-cotton blend. They do still wrinkle, but definitely not as much as 100% linen!
Unfortunately, the exact pair that I’m wearing here is no longer available, but I’ll be sharing some below that are very similar — very comfy, soft, and not itchy. Linen pants like these make your outfits look pulled together while still being super casual and comfy.
SIZING: I’m 5’6″ and usually S/M or 6 in clothes and 8.5 to 9 in shoes.
Tips for How to Wear Wide Leg Linen Pants
Here are a few tips for how to wear wide leg pants and make it look good!
1a. Make sure they fit you well!
Wide leg pants are tricky and can really widen you out — if you don’t have the RIGHT pair. Remember, I always, always tell you that great style starts with having the RIGHT pieces. That means it is important to be scrutinizing as you evaluate whether or not a piece deserves a place in your closet. Wide leg pants can easily look unflattering, so be judicious in your purchasing decisions.
BUT, before you write off wide leg pants completely because you tried a few bad pairs, let me get to…
1b. Wide leg pants are not all created equal. Try different pairs to find one that works for you.
If a few pairs don’t work out for you, that doesn’t mean wide leg pants don’t work for you in general. It just means those pairs don’t fit you. They’re not all cut the same, so if you want to wear them but haven’t found the right pair, keep looking. (If you don’t even want to wear them, that’s a whole different story. You don’t have to!)
I showed this side-by-side in a recent post, and I’ll put it here as a reminder that if clothes don’t fit you well, it’s not because something is wrong with you. It’s just not the right garment for you. Remember: the problem is not you, the problem is the clothes.
Keep looking and you might finally find a pair that’s cut better for you! For what it’s worth, it’s taken me many attempts over the span of a couple of different summers to find a few pairs that I finally love. Here are some options for wide leg pants that you can try this summer.
Shop Wide Leg Linen Pants:
2. Define Your Waist
Defining your waist is important even when we’re not talking about wide leg pants, but it is especially important with wide leg pants. Wide leg pants add a lot of volume, so they can drown out your shape more easily and make you look frumpy and shapeless. You need to define your waist. And when I say that, I don’t mean you need to wear clothes that hug your waist tightly (though you can if you’re comfortable with that). Rather, you just need to delineate where your waistline is, to separate your legs from your top half.
Simple ways to define your waist are with a loose front tuck, a full tuck (which can be bloused out a little to not be so formfitting), or knotting your top. You’ll see examples of me doing these in the outfit pics below.
3. Create Balance: Wider on bottom, more fitted on top.
Creating balance isn’t something that absolutely has to be done each time, but it is a good rule of thumb to follow when troubleshooting your outfit. If you have volume in one half, make the other half more fitted to balance it out.
Since wide leg pants add volume to the bottom, make the top more fitted to balance that out and still create shape.
Conversely, when you wear slimmer jeans on the bottom (fitted), you can still look okay wearing a more oversized top. That’s because the slimmer jeans are creating shape for you.
Again, this doesn’t mean your top has to be skin tight, but if you want to avoid looking completely shapeless, go for a top that is at least somewhat fitted to balance out all the volume that wide leg pants add on the bottom. (And make sure to do #2 and define your waistline!)
4. Make sure to “ground” your outfit.
I have said this in past posts on summer style, and it definitely applies here. Linen pants are soft and flowy, as are a lot of summer pieces. Soft and flowy materials are comfortable, but a ton of you also ask how you can avoid looking like you’re wearing pajamas in those kinds of clothes.
The answer is, again, about balance — this time balancing materials. An outfit full of soft and flowy materials needs something to ground it, so add harder or tougher textures, such as leather, metal, or denim. Balance out the soft textures with hard textures. Adding leather sandals, a leather belt, or metal accessories can do the trick. (And this is another reason why accessorizing is so important!
5. Wear a shoe that elongates your feet.
Wide leg pants can make you look squat, so make sure to keep your leg line extended by choosing shoes that elongate your feet. No, that doesn’t mean you have to wear pointed toe shoes. Just be mindful of the types of shoes that make your feet look squat and stunted versus shoes that keep your toes peeking out and even possibly helping to elongate them.
These are some of my best tips for how to wear wide leg linen pants. Now I’ll show you some wide leg linen pants outfits!
Wide Leg Linen Pants Outfits
Really, there are soooo many things you could wear with a neutral pair of wide leg pants like these, but here are a few wide leg pants outfits to try with them!
1. Basic Tank or Tee
Here, I’m defining my waist with a full tuck. And while this is an example of a top that is very fitted, I want to remind you again that you don’t have to wear something as formfitting as this. I’ll show you slightly looser options below. But, whichever way you choose, just pick your favorite color and go for it!
Notice the pants here aren’t adding extra width to my hips or around my legs, rather, they’re falling straight down (unlike the other pair that I showed you in the side-by-side comparison earlier in this post).
Also, what’s key, regarding the full tuck, is that the rise in my pants is higher and hits at the narrowest part of my waist. If you go back and look at the other pair of pants that I don’t love in the side-by-side comparison, you’ll notice that the rise is a tad lower than it is on this pair, and it makes a big difference in how flattering—or in this case, unflattering—a full tuck looks. Again, starting with the RIGHT PIECES is key.
This is another version with a top that is looser around the torso. I’m still doing a full tuck, but this top isn’t as formfitting as the green tank above, yet my waist is still defined. I added leather earrings and metallic sandals to add some polish and finish off these otherwise very plain pieces!
Alternatively, you could knot a t-shirt, which a lot of people who dislike tucking prefer to do. Here’s an example of that!
2. Printed Top
Go for a printed top to create a more eye-catching outfit! This particular top is made of cotton, so it is still really casual, but it’s nicer than a t-shirt. It pairs well with these pants and dresses them up a bit without looking too dressy for regular mom-life activities.
These tops are not formfitting and can be bloused out a bit in a full tuck.
I’m using a style strategy here called “color pulling,” which means pulling (selecting) colors from the print and incorporating them elsewhere in my outfit. This creates a cohesive look, as the print does the work of tying those colors together. My wide leg linen pants echo the off-white in the print, and my earrings echo the reddish-orange color in the print.
Whatever color of wide leg pants you’re wearing, choose printed tops that have the color of your pants in the print, and your outfit will instantly have cohesion!
3. Top With Special Details
Another way to dress up linen pants a bit is to pair them with a top that has special details. This blue tank is made of material that feels just like a t-shirt. In other words, comfy and casual. However, it looks like a step up from a t-shirt, thanks to the special details like the smocked neckline and ruffle straps. Tops with details are great in the summer because they are casual but add a lot more style and polish than t-shirts do.
To really make this outfit pop, I added yellow earrings, which is a triadic color with blue and pops nicely!
I hope this helps you feel more confident and capable regarding how to style wide leg pants this summer! Let me know if you have any questions.
