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What I learned from the Met Gala and the #OLOlivePants inseam

What I learned from the Met Gala and the #OLOlivePants inseam

20th century pant drafting hypothesis

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Ithaca Maven
May 21, 2025
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What I learned from the Met Gala and the #OLOlivePants inseam
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For a pants afficionado, this year’s Met Gala was a bonanza. Particularly fortuitous to have the Black dandy theme as we were making a vintage style inspired more masc presenting pant. I hope to visit the exhibition in person at some point.

In fitting our pants, one theme that popped up was the leg silhouette that appeared slightly bendy in the toile, with a very slight swing at the bottom of the inseam.

Whole waistband, half-pant fitting

A few of us, including me, edited this aspect of the pattern in the fitting stage. I don’t know for sure but it is possible that that the inseam shaping came from vintage pant drafting approaches such as this one:

Image adapted from “How to Draft Basic Patterns” by Kopp, Rolfo and Zelin 1975 showing inseam shaping in pant drafting

I believe this diagram is fairly representative of what a student might learn in fashion school where the inseam shaping is blended to the knee position1. From the knee to the hem the pant is assumed to be more or less a cylinder which is the reason why traditional pants fitting advice would be to make a toile of just the top part of the pant2.

This type of draft I believe has its origins in menswear tailoring and goes hand -in-hand with a more straight grain cut for the front crotch (as we see in the #OLOlivePants).

Traditional tailored trousers, note the arc shape of the inseam. Image from The Cut, Fall Fashion 2024

At the Met Gala, not surprisingly, we saw a lot of this vintage tailoring trousers style. We saw closely fitted versions,

more relaxed, less exaggerated versions,

and exquisitely elegant ones,

This entire outfit is supremely beautiful. I have learned so much about pants from looking at Sergio Hudson designs

It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing

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