Daring Pants at Paris Fashion Week Are Giving My French-Girl Jeans a Break

This Paris Fashion Week, showgoers on the street style circuit transformed every corner of my closet into a casually cool wardrobe worthy of a French girl. Everything from trench coats and denim to ballet flats and pencil skirts received the effortlessly elegant treatment—just in time for fall. But before the Louis Vuitton show ended Fashion Month's Spring/Summer 2027 season, French girls delivered a last-minute master class in the daring pants department.

With cut-out capris, sheer leggings, and billowy bloomers stealing the spotlight on the runways, it's no surprise that offbeat bottoms are sweeping the post-show sidewalks as well. Flared pants, for instance, are standing out in a sea of Jane Birkin-adjacent jeans. Whether the hems spread slightly or to bell-bottom levels of wide, the anti-slim styles were a surprisingly welcome switch from the figure-hugging fits at Fashion Weeks in London and New York. One showgoer even selected a structured pair that transported New York Fashion Week's signature shade of red to Paris.

Staying in the not-so-skintight silhouette family, balloon pants floated onto Fashion Week's after-show scene—in all shades, widths, and prints. Tracee Ellis Ross took charge of the trend outside the Celine showcase, wearing a drawstring style with elasticized hems. Soon after, an attendee tucked their gray button-down into balloon bottoms that boasted a seashell-printed pattern. Similar curved shapes resurfaced on petticoat pants with lace-trimmed legs, too.

The seashell-sporting showgoer wasn't the only one wearing unconventionally printed pants in Paris. Leopard, snakeskin, zebra, and even camouflage covered the baggy bottoms. Some let their statement-making styles do all the talking: one guest wore a straight-leg, leopard-spotted pair with a trench coat and high-vamp flats, both in black. Meanwhile, others matched the maximalism of printed pants with can't-miss colors on their early-fall outerwear. See: a burnt orange, funnel-neck windbreaker and a cropped, moss green leather jacket.

Perhaps the most popular pants trend also happened to be the most striking: perfect-for-Fashion-Week pairs were drenched in Fall 2026's favorite colors. Cobalt blue (a signature shade for Serena Williams, Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner, and more) traded places with traditional denim; royal purple (a pigment beloved by Zoë Kravitz, Hailey Bieber, and NYFW style setters) made a guest's orange scarf belt even more striking; and Tamu McPherson's fuchsia taffeta trousers bridged the gap between another French girl staple, the leather jacket, and her snakeskin shoes.

Now, because Paris Fashion Week's forecast remained in the mid-70s, cropped pants snuck onto the street style track, too. Culottes that stretched a few inches longer than Bermudas showed just enough skin, without departing from the pants category. Cargo-pocketed culottes looked surprisingly sleek with elevated basics like white button-downs, black kitten heels, and bottomless tote bags.

Then, when a Fashion Week fan stacked a billowy blouse on top of wide-leg shorts, the brocade trend became bolder than ever. Some Parisians even played with prints on the knee- or calf-length pants.

All this to say? I didn't attend Paris Fashion Week, but by the look of my French girl-ified fall closet, it certainly looks like I had a front-row seat to the most opulent Olympics. Once you've treated yourself to Parisian-approved ballet flats, trench coats, and jeans, join me in shopping the non-denim drawers below. Trust: I'll be living in these Fashion Week-worthy pants from now until the street style set returns to Paris next February.

Shop Daring Pants Inspired by French Girls at Paris Fashion Week