Much Love for the Capri Length Pants

"Thanks!" to J.Crew Guy In Canada who shared an article from Wall Street Journal online (click here to read in its entirety) about capri pants and of course, Jenna Lyons!

Ankle-Baring Trousers From Runway to Office
Women and Men Experiment With Summer Style in More Formal Settings; J. Crew's Best-Selling Pants Are 'Café' Capris
By Christina Binkley
June 30, 2011

Last Friday, Amanda Cain went to her New York brokerage office wearing a black tee, a black, tailored, Theory-brand jacket, and a dark pair of J. Crew skinny-leg blue jeans rolled up above the ankle.

Cropped, narrow, and minimalist: It's the slacks silhouette of summer 2011.

Ms. Cain, a senior director at Newedge USA, is approaching the look with caution, however. She says she wouldn't wear cropped pants to the office on any day other than a casual Friday.

And when she does wear cropped styles, she sticks to high-quality brands and keeps the length just barely above the ankle. "If they're edgy, you can look cheap and trashy in a second," she says.

Fashion choices in the office often raise prickly questions, risking derisive stares from the boss, colleagues or clients.

But the latest crop of short trousers present a particularly tough call: On the one hand, Capri pants are effortlessly chic, and they reveal little more than a flash of ankle. Yet they are traditionally a beachy look, which won't help you hone your image as the person who can close a deal or hit third-quarter revenue targets.

"The vision is clam diggers on Cape Cod," says Sandy Dumont, a Norfolk, Va., image consultant. Even if Capri pants are crisp and neat, she says, "they reflect the exciting place for which they were named."

Stylish pants have risen above the ankle for men as well as women. High-fashion brands such as Marc Jacobs, Thom Browne, and Jason Wu are promoting everything from slightly cropped pants for men to wear without socks, to dress shorts for women.

The look of the moment involves peg-legged cropped pants, or pants that are rolled up sloppily—on purpose—above the ankle.

Bigger brands and retailers are interpreting the runway styles for wider use, and they're planning to carry the cropped look into the fall.

J. Crew's best-selling women's pants right now are the Capri-length "Café" pant in cotton. For fall, it will come in office-ready wool in a variety of colors and patterns including raspberry, mustard, tweed, and checked, says Jenna Lyons, J.Crew's president and executive creative officer. Currently, the brand has slim wool suiting slacks, called the "Paley" pant, that are cropped a few inches above the ankle.

Jon Putnam, a Boston-based economist, says he noticed cropped pants being worn in Federal District Court in New York, where he was giving testimony in an intellectual-property case. Breaking with convention is "probably not what a courtroom outfit is supposed to do," he says.

Ms. Lyons, who is in charge of interpreting high-fashion looks for J. Crew's broad audience, says she has given a lot of thought to wearing cropped pants in a professional setting. "The most important thing is to pay attention to the length—just above the ankle," she says. "Shorter gets too casual.

"For a suit, a slim trouser with heels and no socks looks a little more polished," she adds, suggesting cropped pants be worn with a simple, classic pump.

Another, more dramatic look being promoted by high-fashion brands for several seasons is shorts suits. Ms. Cain says she won't be going there. Clients "expect you to look like grown-ups," she says. "Shorts are equivalent to wearing a miniskirt."

The risks for men are another thing entirely. While the cropped or rolled-above-the-ankle look is popular for men, the style is almost entirely casual and best worn outside the office.

... Almost no one is recommending that professional men outside of some creative jobs wear cropped pants to the office.

... "My husband asked, 'Can I do that?' " Ms. Lyons said. "No," she told him. "The world is not ready."

I love the Capri look for Summer. It will be interesting to see how J.Crew translates that into Fall. Not going to lie, the described shade of "raspberry" sounds a-ma-zing. As for wearing it in more professional settings... not so sure about that one. It really can be tricky.

What are your thoughts on article? Do you wear them at the office? If so, please share how you style them! :)