Bell bottoms are pants with a flared leg from the knee to the hem, popularized by the hippie culture of the 1960s and 1970s. They were originally worn by US Navy sailors in the early 1800s. Flare pants and loon pants are similar styles. Bell bottoms had a brief comeback in the 1990s, but are now mostly worn as a costume item. Tight ankle-length pants are currently in fashion.
Bell bottoms are a style of pants characterized by the way the pant leg flares out a lot between the knee and bottom hem. Typically, these pants are worn slim-fitting from the waist to the knee, exaggerating the bell-shaped flare at the bottom. This type of bellbottom pant is more specifically known as a hip hugging bellbottom pant. Bell buttons are considered an item of clothing for both men and women.
A similarly shaped pant that also has a leg that flares at the bottom is called a flare pant, although with flare pants, the flare of the leg at the bottom is usually less pronounced. Another similar style of pant is the loon pant, which is short for balloon pant. The flare of the lower half of the legs in a pair of loon pants is even more exaggerated than in flared pants.
Bell buttons are believed to have been a style of pants first worn by United States Navy sailors in the early 1800s. However, the pants worn by sailors in this era were different than the buttons most commonly used. They later became popular in the 1960s and 1970s in the hippie culture of the United States and Great Britain. Early bell-shaped pants were also wide through the top half of the pant leg.
Although the US Navy uniform still includes bell-bottoms as of the 21st century, bell-bottoms are perhaps best known as a hippie fashion icon. Starting in the late 1960s, bell-bottoms became a popular clothing style worn by members of the hippie counterculture, and were very popular through much of the ’70s. Other iconic hippie fashion items include love beads and granny glasses.
Many decided to take the widening of the pant legs into their own hands. A regular pair of jeans could be turned into a one-button pair by cutting a slit from the bottom hem to the knee, and adding a triangle-shaped piece of material to flare the pant leg from the knee down. This type of hand-sewn or hand-altered clothing was not unusual in hippie fashion, and was sometimes used to create other items such as tops and bags.
It’s common to see flared pants and baggy pants worn by young people in photos taken in the 1970s. During this decade, buttons were a surefire feature in the wardrobes of TV celebrities like Farrah Fawcett and the musical duo, Sonny and Cher. Hippie fashion also seemed to influence clothing trends in general, and even pants that weren’t specifically designed as hippie clothing began to flare out at the knee.
The Bellbottoms had a brief comeback in popularity during the 1990s, both in Europe and North America. However, for the most part, flared pants are usually worn as a costume item, for example, a hippie Halloween costume or a retro themed party. However, flared jeans remained very popular through the 1990s and into the early 21st century. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the width of the trouser leg has begun to shrink again. Perhaps the opposite of the bell-bottom, pants with tight ankle-length legs have become the fashion of the moment.
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