How to Style Wide Leg Pants as a Grown-ass Woman

If you’re like me, you’re looking at your closet and wondering what you’re going to wear as the seasons change. I think a lot about pants, as I think they are the easiest and most impactful way to update an existing closet. I find the wide-leg fashion trend to look modern, fresh, and comfortable. Below, I share some tips on how to style wide leg pants as a grown woman, along with photos of myself wearing different wide-leg pant outfits.

All women have the right to wear whatever they wish. I do not subscribe to the belief that women of a certain age shouldn’t wear certain styles. In fact, these days I think such a mentality is incredibly dated. Fashion is fluid, and true style comes from dressing for yourself not for the approval of others. As grown-ass women, we have earned the right to wear what brings us comfort and joy.

How to Style Wide Leg Pants

Choosing a Closet of Comfort and Joy
Comfort goes beyond whether an item binds, restricts, or irritates. Comfort also comes from clothing that allows you to be your most confident, true self. For some, that may be a wide-leg ponte trouser with a pull-on waistband. For others, it may be high-waisted leather jeans that fit like a second skin. Comfort is personal, unique, and deserved.

Joy is also personal. Joy can come from color, texture, trend, sentimentality, and more. But comfort and joy should be at the forefront when considering adding anything to your existing wardrobe. You likely already own “gets the job done” apparel. Let’s add comfort and joy to your existing closet with a pair of pants that will work with your existing knitwear, shirts and blouses, jackets, and toppers.

The Trends, They Are a-Changin’

Like the skinny jeans trend, the primary pants trend for the past decade+ has been slim- to skinny-fit ankle pants. Often compared to pants worn by Audrey Hepburn (and often named after her), these pants have been seen as a wardrobe classic for years. The perk of the style is its versatility. It could work with a tailored blazer or an oversized t-shirt, a turtleneck sweater or a tissue-weight tank, stilettos or sneakers.

With so much versatility over the years, we’ve likely found our recipe for a balanced (or at least comfortable) outfit with tailored ankle pants.

Some slim ankle pant styles that have had enduring popularity in the past decade are the Old Navy Pixie Pant, the ELOQUII Kady Pant, the Talbots Chatham Pant, the Universal Standard Moro Pant, and the Chico’s Brigitte Pant. Please know these pants are still stylish, but pants trends in recent years have become more expansive… literally.

As I’ve often mentioned this past year on Wardrobe Oxygen, fashion right now is about taking up the space you deserve. You can do this by wearing bold colors, trying trends that break style rules for slenderizing or hiding the body, or choosing silhouettes that are looser, bolder, or styles with more fabric and flow or architectural details.

Style Rules Are No Longer Stylish

Stacy and Clinton may have stated back in Y2K that skinny pants will not make you look even five pounds smaller than wearing looser trousers. But even Stacy and Clinton have changed their tune.

This “rule,” like other style rules, was created to make everyone fit a specific ideal. And that concept in 2025 can actually be quite unstylish. You never know, you may experience both comfort and joy from trying a different cut of pants.

In 2025, comfort and joy increase your personal style quotient exponentially. There is a strong focus on using clothing to express oneself, incorporating street style, and experimenting with proportions, color, and pattern. Contemporary clothing is inspired by the 90s, but also fashion from every decade of the past century. In 2025, the most stylish thing one can wear is confidence, and that comes from knowing and respecting yourself.

If you own skinny ankle pants, please continue to wear them. I do not condone disposing of anything in your closet that fits and functions in your life and wardrobe. But I also know that we grown-ass women have grown up with a heckuva lot of style rules, and by occasionally breaking one, you may find they were holding us back from finding our personal style. At least, that’s what I’m finding out in this second half of life.

We all deserve to wear what brings us comfort and joy, and the only way we can find what provides that is to try new things with a new attitude. Nothing is more stylish than knowing yourself and dressing for yourself and not for others. And right now, fashion is more supportive than it has been in decades to try new things, play, and maybe break some rules without negative outcomes. So, if you’ve found yourself here by searching “How to style wide leg pants as a grown woman”, while there is no “right” or “wrong” way, I’ll show you a few things I’ve learned over the years.

OMG, a middle-aged fat short woman in a bustier and shiny double-breasted wide-leg pantsuit? The horror! But is it, really? I get this much exposure is not everyone’s cup of tea, but imagine it with a drapey camisole, or a fitted turtleneck, or a graphic tee, or a Breton-striped tee, or a blouse buttoned up to the neck. With stilettos or with sneakers. You will find that a wide-leg pant can be as versatile as a skinny ankle pant.

How to Style Wide Leg Pants as a Grown Woman

The current trend of wide-leg pants is whatever you want them to be. So, when I talk about how to style wide leg pants, I really mean how do you find them most comfortable? Soft silk, rayon, and crepe; sturdy yet stretchy ponte, relaxed chino and linen, professional suiting fabrics, and dressy fabrics like satin and brocade. Most styles have at least some elastic at the waist, whether they are a pull-on style or have a traditional fly and hidden elastic in back.

As for best rise of wide leg pants, that too is whatever you want, and you will find everything from Y2K-inspired hip huggers to ribcage-grazing high rises. I personally find a mid- to high-rise the easiest to wear and the most commonly found at retailers.

Styling Wide Leg Pants with a Graphic T-Shirt

For so long, wide-leg pants gave a feeling of formality. Like suiting trousers or palazzo pants, wide legs were dressy and swishy. And they can still read dressy, but they can also be dressed down with casual pieces like tank tops, denim jackets, sneakers, sandals, and graphic T-shirts.

If you love rocking a graphic t-shirt with your skinny ankle pants and sneakers, this is an easy transition to a wider leg. You can tuck in the t-shirt or knot it. A pair of sneakers looks great with wide-leg pants. While I have sunset brights in this outfit, you can easily go more neutral.

While my shirt rode up from raising my arm, this is the example of the knot I mentioned and linked to above. Depending on the length and tightness of the tee is how much of a knot will show and how low the shirt can be on the torso.

If I hadn’t raised my arm and the shirt was looser, this would have covered most of the pant’s elastic waist. Shorter t-shirt sleeves may expose the upper arms, but they also elongate the arm, make the shoulder seem broader, and create balance with the wide-leg pants.

Styling Wide Leg Pants with Sandals
As the weather warms, sandals can keep you cool and comfortable. They also look great styled with wide leg pants! My preference are Birkentocks which are supportive and in style this year, but you can do a flat sandal, a slide as seen in the graphic below, a slight wedge, or most any style to look vacation chic as well as business-casual chic.

I chose these pants because as a petite curvy person, I have had great success with Madewell wide leg pants. The proportions and the drape of the fabric are really great, and I appreciate the range of sizes in petite and tall as well as regular.

Styling Wide Leg Pants with an Untucked Top

Style lightweight wide-leg pants either by balancing the volume with a slimmer or tucked in top, or embrace the volume with a matching voluminous top or relaxed blazer. To keep volume with volume from looking like pajamas, focus on fit. Yes, even oversized can and should be tailored. A grown-ass woman has her sleeves the right length, the fit loose but not sloppy.

To keep from being a box, consider unbuttoning the last buttons of the shirt and rolling up the sleeves. Create the sense of a waist by knotting the shirt, or wear the shirt partially or completely open over a white tank.

Wide-leg pants and wide-leg jeans before now had primarily been cropped to the ankle bone. While you can still wear such styles, this year pants have gone full-length. Your wide-leg pants now should hit 1/2″ to 1/4″ from the floor covering most of your shoe.

No, this look isn’t going to get me any awards for the smallest waistline, but it doesn’t make me look like a linen box. The top has a high-low hemline and shirttails that hit high, showing more of the pant while also creating movement. The button front has the top two and bottom two unbuttoned, which also creates movement. Play with pushing back the shoulders, rolling the sleeves, opening or closing a button.

I’ve styled similar wide-leg trousers with a range of looks but love them with a silky blouse and a structured flat or loafer. Leave the blouse out, tuck it in, roll up the sleeves, the choice is yours!

Yes, you can have soft curves and tuck in your top. This works especially well with wide leg pants. Look for pants with a higher rise that hits closer to the smallest part of your torso. Fully tuck in the top, raise your hands, and then play with untucking; a less-untucked top can actually prove more stylish than one bloused out a lot.

Styling Wide Leg Pants for the Weekend

After a couple of years of joggers and sweats, elevate your weekend look with pull-on wide leg pants that are just as comfy and easy-care but incorporate a current silhouette.

Wearing the same pants featured in the collage above, just in a different colorway. Come winter, I switch out the Breton stripe tee for a sweater

Styling Wide Leg Pants with an Untucked Blouse

Old style rules state you need to balance volume on the bottom with a slim top. I have found it’s less about volume and more about proportion and fabric. If the fabric has drape, it won’t feel so boxy. And if the top doesn’t cover your entire rear, it will feel more balanced.

The top is silk, the pants ponte; these both have good drape and movement which reduces bulk and shows one’s shape. We are never standing still, and clothing with movement works with, not against curves. A crossbody bag or long necklace can also help temper volume.

The fun in the “how to style wide leg pants as a grown-ass woman” question is that the answer is: however you want to. It’s kind of hard to see my earrings, but they are drop cherries are they’re so fun! That’s the thing—you can have fun with your outfits. As much as I love a solid-print silk blouse for office wear, I also like to switch it up and add fun prints and exciting summery colors. It works for anything from a fun office look to a weekend out, you make the rules!

A brightly colored pair of wide-leg linen pants creased at my lower belly and crotch, paired with a chunky sleeveless high-neck sweater tucked in—sounds like a lot of fashion no-nos for someone with a short, curvy body. But those aspects didn’t stop strangers of various ages from giving me compliments. Adhering to those rules you heard since you were a child may be holding you back.

I hope these examples of how to style wide leg pants (as well as wide leg jeans) get your sartorial juices flowing and you’re inspired to try this silhouette. The wide-leg pant trend isn’t going anywhere, and once you try it and get familiar with this new silhouette, you may find you really enjoy it! Let me know how it works for you!