From runways to grocery runs, bottomless looks are everywhere

A classic coat and knit polo blend perfectly with the daring sans-pants trend. Miu Miu coat, $9,200, and polo, $2,600, MiuMiu​.com, Live the Process briefs, $128, LiveTheProcess​.com, Marlo Laz earrings, $1,200, MarloLaz​.com. PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN KENNETH BIRD FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE; STYLING BY JENNY HARTMAN

By Rory Satran

Was Edie Sedgwick the first “it girl” to ditch her pants? In 1965, Life magazine wrote that the Warhol muse was “doing more for black tights than anyone since Hamlet.”

Sedgwick might be pleased to see that the sans-pants look she pioneered is now reigning the runway, with designers from Coperni to Ferragamo to Victoria Beckham to Valentino showing very dressed-up looks missing one (some would say) crucial element. Stars have taken up the pantsless mantle too. Emma Corrin donned green Miu Miu briefs with a matching cardigan at the Venice Film Festival. Even in the dead of winter, Hailey Bieber left a leather jacket orphaned on a January walk in New York City. On Jan. 2, the artist Ye posted a picture of his frequent companion Bianca Censori in a fur top, thong and heels, captioned: “No pants this year.”

“Listen, I hate pants,” says Beverly Nguyen, a New York stylist and founder of the home-goods store Beverly’s—who is, admittedly, lithe, brave and fashionable. At a recent dinner party at her house, she wore a spin on a Bottega Veneta outfit Kendall Jenner wore in Los Angeles in 2022: navy sweater, black tights, black heels. She thinks the look works best with a conservative pairing; business up top and party on the bottom. 

Celebrities including Kendall Jenner, Tessa Thompson and Emma Corrin have sported the no-pants look, while designers such as Miu Miu and Alaïa have sent the trend down their runways.  PHOTO: FROM LEFT: ALIX NEWMAN/SHUTTERSTOCK; MIU MIU; ZACK WHITFORD/BFA.COM; ALAÏA; FRANCO ORIGLIA/GETTY IMAGES

Nguyen, who has worked out on the treadmill wearing a silk slip skirt from The Row, is somewhat inclined to think outside the confines of dress codes. “It was definitely main-character energy” to forgo pants, she says, but she doesn’t think it’s that wacky, especially since brands like Miu Miu are going all in on the trend. Nobody was asking her, What happened to your pants?

Miu Miu, the sassier sister to Prada, has been a vanguard of the style since it first sent Kate Moss down the runway in a bathing suit and a trench in 1996. In recent years, the brand’s designer Miuccia Prada flirted with increasingly disappearing skirts: a viral mini-kilt followed by a fully sheer polka-dotted pencil skirt. For spring, the brand returned to its ’90s roots, with many looks featuring boy-brief-style underwear and bare legs, grounded by preppy boat shoes.

Consider the pantsless look with a conservative pairing; business up top and party on the bottom. Ferragamo jacket, $2,400, cardigan, $1,190, earrings, $410, briefs, $590, bag, $3,700, and shoes, $995, Ferragamo​.com; Miu Miu coat, $9,200, polo, $2,600, and shoes, $950, MiuMiu.com, Live the Process briefs, $128, LiveTheProcess.com. PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN KENNETH BIRD FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE | STYLING BY JENNY HARTMAN

Clare Vivier, the Los Angeles designer and founder of accessories brand Clare V., was also inspired by Miu Miu, which she says has “hit a cultural nerve.” So when she was getting ready for a recent party, she put on a new pair of flat Mary Jane shoes, an oversize hoodie and blazer, and then called it a day. She says she was not the only one at the party who’d left her pants at home. 

“There’s a whimsy about the look, a lack of preciousness,” says Leandra Medine Cohen. The New York writer has sported several pants-free outfits recently: an embellished jacket over a turtleneck and sheer tights; a white boatneck T-shirt with a funky belt and polka-dotted stockings; a baggy gray sweater tucked into sparkly Calzedonia tights. 

The no-pants style requires more courage and effort than its nonchalant appearance lets on. The Row blazer, $4,350, shirt, $1,150, and briefs, $1,050, TheRow.com, and Marlo Laz earrings, $1,200, MarloLaz.com. Model, Georgia Moot at One Management; hair, Edward Lampley; makeup, Stevie Huynh; production, Harbinger. PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN KENNETH BIRD FOR WSJ. MAGAZINE; STYLING BY JENNY HARTMAN

She admits that the air of nonchalance is a bit deceptive, as the style requires quite a bit of courage and effort to plan the proper full-coverage underwear, find the perfect tights and coordinate an appropriate top. “And yet it still exudes this sense of unfinished business,” she says. Right—the whole putting-on-your-pants business. 

“I do like how it looks,” Paris stylist Ondine Azoulay says, “but not for real life.” When she styles models in pantsless looks for magazines, that’s a “fantasy,” she says. But out on the street, it’s weird. “Can you imagine if guys started walking around in Speedos?”

New York stylist Beverly Nguyen. PHOTO: BEVERLY NGUYEN

If you’re going to try no pants for yourself, choose your venue wisely. Nguyen and Medine Cohen have both done it to entertain at home, which is as low-stakes as it gets. 

“I’m not trying to walk into the synagogue attached to my kids’ school in just a pair of tights,” Medine Cohen says. 

And the right attitude is just as important as the right underpinnings. “You can’t have no pants on and be a bitch,” says Nguyen