Big Leg Energy: The barrel pant fashion trend favored by celebrities continues

If loose silhouettes are the current language of contemporary fashion, barrel pants are its enduring, most sculptural expression.

Everywhere you look – from boutiques to runways – this shape continues to appear with increasing frequency, underscoring fashion’s continuing obsession with exaggerated, curved-legged forms.

Celebrities, in particular, are leading the trend, styling barrel pants with everything from casual off-duty dressing to clearly tailored, statement-making ensembles.

Meryl Streep, currently receiving intense fashion attention ahead of the release the devil wears prada 2Was seen wearing DISSH’s white barrel pants in New York City last week.

Perhaps a form of dressing style, given that she plays the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine in the film, she gave her look a high-fashion twist with sharp red accessories.

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Jessica Alba wore a pair of Free People barrel jeans to the Super Bowl festivities in February, keeping the outfit casual with a corset top and cropped jacket.

Other famous faces like Jennifer Lopez, Gigi Hadid, Michelle Williams, Halle Berry, and Katie Holmes have also largely adopted barrel pants as part of their off-duty wardrobes.

Julianne Moore has been a longtime fan of the style and is stepping out wearing a pair from Alaïa in 2024.

Since then she has been seen repeatedly adopting this look, solidifying her place in her public life.

Interestingly, Alaia is often credited with the emergence of the barrel-pants phenomenon. The shape appeared in the label’s autumn/winter 2023 collection and quickly swept the fashion landscape.

Also known as banana pants, horseshoe pants or clown pants, they are basically trousers with a seam that wraps around the leg, creating a flared shape at the sides before narrowing again at the ankle.

The design is said to have originated in the 1920s as a style of French workwear and riding trousers, although its history is difficult to verify.

Brands that have sent barrel pants down the runway include Phoebe Philo, Loewe, Balenciaga, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Prabal Gurung, Roksanda, Bottega Veneta and Isabel Marant – and the list goes on.

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But perhaps Jacquemus was the label that popularized barrel pants for Gen Z.

Last March, Hailey Bieber’s stylist Danny Mitchell shared a photo of Bieber wearing an all-black Jacquemus look consisting of a sharp jacket top and barrel pants at Paris Fashion Week.

Kendall Jenner, another client of Michelle’s, has also often been seen in this style.

Every decade has its own iconic trouser shape. From bell bottoms in the 1970s to skinny jeans in the 2010s, pant cuts keep changing with the times.

Although there are rumors that barrel pants are becoming overhyped, the trend is still here to stay.

Last October, the new York Times 2025 has been dubbed the year of the barrel pants. Fast forward four months to 2026, and design shows no signs of disappearing.

Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay – for now.