It’s official, stirrup pants are back. Victoria’s Secret Fall Preview Catalog featured stirrup pants for $32.00 (Thanks Christie for the tip).
Now, I must go puke…
fashion advice fashion trends shoes fashion shopping weblog budget fashionista Clothing
Fashion Expert budgetfashionista retro
Founded in 2003, TBF is a fashion blog dedicated to helping you live your best for less. We give you the 411 on the latest fashion trends & tips and sample sales. 
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
Noooooooooooooooooo!
I agree! I hated stirrup pants in the 80’s, and now they’re back! They hurt your feet, and they’re just plain unattractive.
I’m also apalled by the skinny jeans. And just when I thought clothing manufacturers realized that flattering womens’ bodies would sell more clothes… These jeans aren’t flattering on anyone!
The VS catalog has also been showing the same sweaters-and-legging sets since 1996, and took longer to show bootcut jeans than LL Bean did! I have no confidence in their ability to pick the right trend to sell, and this just confirms it. I could only see wearing something with stirrups for the purpose they were created—holding your pants down inside your boots!
That model looks like she has chicken legs!
i’m sad.
<3t.
Ummm… I don’t know if I’d take the VS Catalog as being “what’s in fashion.” They have stuff like pale green jeans in there!! (http://www2.victoriassecret.com/commerce/application/prodDisplay/?namespace=productDisplay&origin=onlineProductDisplay.jsp&event=display&prnbr=XC-180918&page=1&cgname=OSCLOJEAZZZ&rfnbr=2245) I picture them sitting piled high on a shelf in a warehouse somewhere, just waiting for someone to order them. That’s why VS send out 489 catalogs a year – they never get rid of anything, they just keep putting them in the catalog.
I agree that Victoria Secret’s isn’t exactly the spot for high fashion- but since they’re so mass market, they wouldn’t put something in the catalog unless it could sell. I’m going to try and see if I can find out from VS how many people bought the stirrup pants.
Okay, I agree that VS isn’t the place to go for fashion! But in VS’s defense, are those (agh) stirrups, or just leggings pulled down to imitate (agh) stirrups? Also, heads up girls. The VS boot featured in the recent In-Style (the one that looks like last years to die for Coach Noreen boot) is in stock. I tried to post the URL. They are suede, slouchy, and only $98. Try to overlook the stirrup (agh) offense, and check them out!
http://www2.victoriassecret.com/commerce/application/prodDisplay/?namespace=productDisplay&origin=onlineProductDisplay.jsp&event=display&prnbr=XC-201544&page=1&cgname=OSSHUBOOTST&rfnbr=3173
Can we all agree to point and laugh at anyone we spot wearing stirrup pants?
Hi Kathryn!
I just wanted to let you know i reviewed your book on my blog today! I absolutely LOVED it. thank you for sending it to me. I hope everyone who reads my site buys a copy!
Thanks Sarah…. I really appreciate you taking time out to read my book…
Just make sure not to buy any stirrup pants..
the picture you have posted doesn’t neccesarily make them look bad, horrific, and completely disgusting…(mostly because you can’t actually see the stirrups) but something tells me only this size 0 model will be able to pull off the stirrup pants. You won’t catch me in them!
Gah…
Well, they’re not as bad as leggings, but pretty darned close. I hope I don’t see anyone but tweenage girls wearing this trend.
My mother forced me to wear hot-pink stirrup pants as a kid…I hate the feeling of the strap digging into your foot.
bad memories…
Oh boy, this is a trend that I will definitely not pick up again. =)
Wow, I remember when I actually HAD chicken legs and just didn’t know it!! It’s all relative isn’t it. But ya know what , I really didn’t look that great in stirrup pants then…GOOD HEAVENS lets not even think what it would be like now!!…..3 babies later…..
I remember working at Lerner’s New York at the Mall of America and there just being racks, upon racks of stirrup pants in very color imaginable and for some reason, they sold… well.. I remember they were $19 for a pair. I never got exactl how you’re suppose to wear them, unless you wear them under boots. My friend Joy tried to get me to buy a pair of forest green ones from her. Needless to say, we’re currently not friends.
ugh, basic rule of thumb: if they don’t look good on the model, they’re not going to look good one me…
UGH. Some things should stay in the past. This is almost as bad as last year’s ill-conceived leg warmer renaissance.
I owned a million pairs of these when I was in junior high. I’m really tall, so they would always be all droopy in the crotch. I felt like MC Hammer.
And sad to say, but even if VS isn’t always totally fashion forward, this one’s for real. They’re also showing such “why god why” hits as the bubble skirt (does anyone really want to look like Angela on “Project Runway”)? and leggings under shorts, all of which I’ve seen in other, trendier places. I’ve even seen scrunchies.
Nightmarish!
Eeeewww! This brings back memories of kindegarten (1994-95, well past when stirrup pants were supposed to be in style) when one girl wore a pair of red (I think they might have been plaid!) stirrup pants with the stirrup OVER her sparkly little-girl sneakers, and heaven help me, I thought it was cool. *shudders*
I was in Jr. High when stirrup pants were in. Please try not to gag, but we wore them with our scrunchy socks on the outside. My one pair were bright blue which I wore with white socks, an oversized white shirt, white Keds, and HUGE earning that didn’t match. Thank goodness no pictures have survived of that outfit.
ONLY if trekking to ballet class should these pants be acceptable! If we must return to the 80s, can’t we do so with better judgement?
I completely agree with the promise to point and laugh at anyone wearing them.
I was in college when stirrups came around the first time…I had several pair in black. I thought I was beyond cool, of course I also thought I was goth/punk at the time too. I used to wear mine with long tunic length tops or punk music group t’s and mini skirts in the summer and big slouchy sweaters in the winter, always with boots (Doc Martens, anyone?).
And BTW – I never really had the legs for them, but I wore them anyway! *shudder*
OMG!!! that horrible bunched up feeling under your foot, ugh!
But stirrups are so comfy!
Stirrup pants hit the rounds when I first started teaching, at the time I had 3 children, developed a thyroid problem-hypo…….so they served a pupose for a 5’2” teacher weighing in at 125 lbs.! They stretched with me and as long as I didn’t look in a mirror I was thinking “fashion”! I called them my uniform-a different color for each day of the week with a sweater that covered up the baggy crotch since I was so short! Thank Heavens, this now 52 year old 92 lb professional has enough confidence in her own trend setting to NEVER buy them again!
Why?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
BLAUUUGHHH!
Umm… Stirrups are a debateable issue – you hate or love them. To the stirrups defence: They’re (the thin, legginstype stirrups, that is) unbeatable as a long-john-type underwear on a really cold winter day UNDER a pair of decent jeans… Normal long-johns tend to be bulky around the ankle, and travel “up the leg” in a most annoying manner. But stirrups stay in place. But to MY defence: Even though I use them regularly – just like most of my comfy underwear – I wouldn’t want to be caught dead a pair pf stirrups…
I can’t believe stirrup pants are coming back!! This past spring i was telling my friends i wanted to buy a pair and they LAUGHED at me. I can’t help that i’m ahead of the game haha. but wow i think they’re cute with flats. but should only be worn by the thin because they aren’t the most flattering on larger body types
I actually think they look good…
Oh god, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
80’s style is cool. Leggings are popular in the UK, I wonder it stirrups will come our way too.
I saw stirrups on the street the other – London’s King’s Road (fashion mecca).
My dear fellow fashionista:
This is TOO MUCH. Absolutely over the top. Genuinely stomach turning, in fact one must turn one’s head and look the other way, lest one’s lunch comes roaring up one’s throat. Wasn’t it hideous enough the first time, when women with knees that were never meant to see the light of day strode about in them, shameless? We’re in for it again, I’m afraid.
http://diaryofamadfashionista.blogspot.com/index.html
can’t wait to see stirrups return.
wow this site is cool! Thank god there are other people out there who don’t bow down to the chicken legged “role model”. and I agree with the (agh) stirrup comments, they are obviously the joke comeback of the season, I think designers decide on a freak item each season and bet on whether they can get people to wear it.
Well, at least they aren’t the frumpy stirrup pants we all remember from days of yore. I still have nightmares from the ones I used to wear in grade school so I’ll be passing on these, thank you very much.
Does anyone remember when slouchy boots were in and we tucked our jeans inside? Okay, here’s the trivia part, what was the little suspender called that attached to your jeans leg, went under your foot, and hooked to the other side so your pants stayed in?
A true story:
One morning, NOT too long ago, I must have gotten dressed while in a COMA…because later in the day, I looked down (in horror) to notice that I was wearing green and brown plaid STIRRUP pants that were tucked into short, black, beat-up boots.
No need to lecture me here ladies, as I have already lectured myself to death.
This, apparently, is what happens to Working Mommies that leave the house without checking a mirror, and who have no time to shop for new clothes!
Pathetic… I know. I probably could have found a better outfit in the ‘good will’ bin… plastic garbage bag and all!
Anyway, NOW I learn STIRRUP pants are coming back in style? Certainly, there is NO GOD!
well, call me old fashioned, but i love ‘em. i’m hard to size (short waisted, low waisted) and at least i can pull them up (so the crotch doesn’t hang down) and at the same time have them stay put. if they hurt your feet, you’ve got them on to tight! glad to see them back…
Scoff if you like, but speaking as a man, I have to agree with Mike; I always thought a woman wearing stirrup pants with a dressy outfit looked sophisticated and sexy.
If you don’t look good in skinny jeans, logically, stirrups should be a no-no for you too.
Hey, there’s really nothing wrong with stirrup pants. They’re really quite comfortable. BUT…the ones in the photo above are truly horrible, even on a skinny person. You must make sure they’re not skin-tight (meaning you can grab a handful in the back). If you have dimples in your ‘tocks, for God’s sake, don’t even think about it.
BLURGH!! I COULD PUKE! Why would VS put this kinda thingy in the catalog… must be their ‘look back to the crazy 80s’ page. I am SKINNY and still wont be caught dead in those. I even hate those skinny jeans that are in.. i just can’t figure them out.
I don’t know… I think stirrups are cute. I mean, the only difference from leggings is that they come all the way down. Then again, being that I’m 15, vintage things, like leggings from the 80’s, are really cute to us teenagers now. Vintage is the “new thing”. We have an 80’s day in our high school and alot of the girls are going to come in with leggings and stirrups. It’s just another fashion item that we’ve brought back.
This sucks! Those things look so ugly, how could they be back in fashion? People wore those things in the 80’s! megxxxxxxxx
i love these pants they look sexy on anyone. Even if i am a guy i think they should make them for men. would you think that would be weird if you saw a man wareing these pants CUZ I WOULD’NT. bye yall.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! What the hell?! First the horrifyingly ugly leggings, now this (well, it’s not as bad as the leggings I think)? These types of tight spandex/stretchy pants look horrible on anyone (they don’t even look good on the model, who is the oh-so-freaking-gorgeous Alessandra Ambrosio!). Why do so many girls wear them? I have no other explanation than that these girls must have no taste or personality of their own, so they just fallow the fashion blindly. Or that they don’t own a mirror. And I don’t blame VS, many stores sell this crap and I’ve seen many girls wear it, too. It’s sad, really..-_-