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Welcome To The Denim Cargo Pant 2.0
The fashion world has been slowly - but surely - reintroducing us to the denim cargo pant, but not as we have seen it before.
There was a time, not so long ago, where the mere mention of cargo jeans would've sent a shiver racing down fashion editors’ spines.
This is a style of denim most associated with the trends of yesteryear, when jeans hung low, and tops were blink-and-you'll-miss-them levels of barely-there. Popularised by all manner of famous faces in the public eye in the 00s, the denim cargo pant was the mainstay of that bygone era. But, just like that, the reign of the cargo jean was over – and in swept the skinny jean to take its place.
Until suddenly, as part of the 2022 collections, the boyish charm of denim cargos reared its head like the ghost of Christmas past. At the spring/summer shows, cargo pants were interpreted in pretty pastels and cool cottons; by the time the autumn/winter collections swung around, they’d been reimagined in dark and inky shades of denim. The fashion world was reintroducing us to the cargo pant, but not as we had seen it before. We were compelled to take note: this was the denim cargo 2.0, and it was cool in a way it hadn’t been before.
In the months following fashion’s reintroduction to the denim cargo pant in February 2022, Net-A-Porter noted that searches for ‘cargo jeans’ became one of its top searches on the website, while TikTok has similarly confirmed the denim cargo pants’ return to the fore. The #CargoJeans has been viewed more than 480 million times on the app, with users waxing lyrical about how to wear theirs with fitted T-shirts and tops for an evening time and loose knits for a modern take on daytime chic.
Browns Fashion’s Womenswear Buyer, Mia Notley, is one of the cargo jeans’ devotees. ‘Agolde’s Vivian jeans are the perfect pair of jeans for winter. I love the ones in the darker colourways with the chunky silver hardware to give a more edgy feel,’ she tells ELLE UK.
As for how to wear these larger-than-life jeans in real life, the Copenhagen street style set has offered a sartorial schooling for such matters. At the SS23 shows, they paired their OTT denim cargo pants with even light and loose knits; this is a game of epic styling proportions, after all. Like oysters and Tabasco, cargo jeans and nifty knits is a pairing that just works. Once you’ve got your hands on a pair you love, simply slip your feet into your smallest and slinkiest shoes – this is all about balance – and allow your cargo jeans to do all the talking for you. These are the cargo jeans we’ve got bookmarked (and you, no doubt, will too).
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