For many people, pants are just something to wear. But for some fashion enthusiasts, pants are a way to flex their taste and show they are in the know.
To members of this crowd, like Maddie Bailis, wearing certain pants is akin to — and may even edge out — carrying ‘it’ bags.
“It’s a signifier of understanding a fashion moment, like a handbag,” said Ms. Bailis, 33, the director of merchandising for the clothing brand Kule in New York. “Many people have designer bags these days. You can get them in the airport, on The Real Real, you can buy them fake on Canal Street. They don’t have the same weight they once carried.”
Also, prices for luxury handbags have risen so sharply in recent years that even some of the wealthiest consumers are hesitant to buy them, said Luca Solca, a senior analyst in luxury goods at the research firm Bernstein.
Ms. Bailis owns two pairs of pants that she said were easily recognized by women who closely follow fashion. They are the Basic pants from Pleats Please (starting at $375), the line of accordionlike clothing founded by the Japanese designer Issey Miyake, and the Tie pants by Brooke Callahan ($155), a designer in Los Angeles who previously worked in public relations for the French brand A.P.C.
The loosefitting Tie pants are low-slung and have a tie waist at one hip. They are sold in bright colors — shamrock green, lilac, butter yellow, bubble-gum pink — as well as in neutral shades like cream, black and navy. At a party for Ms. Callahan in late September in New York, several guests were wearing the pants, including Alyssa Neilson, 31, a social media marketer at Spotify.
Ms. Neilson, who also owns the Basic pants from Pleats Please, lives in Los Angeles and said she had seen those and the Tie pants on patrons of buzzy hangouts in the city, like Café Triste in Chinatown and Canyon Coffee in Echo Park. She has also noticed the pants in photos shared on social media by people whose posts signal what Ms. Neilson characterized as membership in an “international club of online girl taste.”
Zoe Cohen, a creative consultant in Brooklyn whose work focuses on fashion, said that using pants instead of bags as a social signifier “fits into the greater conversation of people wanting to dress less flashy.”
Ms. Cohen, 32, owns pants by Pleats Please and styles from three other brands that have also developed their own sisterhoods: the striped, high-waist Pippi pants (195 euros, or about $212) from the Spanish label La Veste; the barrel-shaped Lasso jeans ($385) from B Sides, a denim brand in Brooklyn; and the Kick pants ($860) by High Sport.
The flared stretch-cotton Kick pants, introduced in late 2021, are sold in more than 40 stores worldwide and have been imitated by retailers like Banana Republic and Old Navy. They and the other pants share some attributes that have helped the styles reach a broad audience: distinct silhouettes, comfortable fabrics and vibrant colors and washes.
Cami Téllez, a founder of the underwear brand Parade, has four pairs of Kick pants. Their creator, Alissa Zachary, founded High Sport after working at luxury brands like Khaite and the Row. The pants, Ms. Téllez said, “are emblematic of a shift toward luxury being about the unusual and unsaid.”
“It feels tone-deaf to wear a Chanel bag on the subway right now,” added Ms. Tellez, 27, who was recently named executive creative director of the hosiery brand L’eggs. The Kick pants, by comparison, are “luxury you can wear and tear,” as she put it. “That’s part of the allure.”
Mélanie Masarin, 33, the founder of Ghia, a line of nonalcoholic aperitifs, has the Kick pants as well, along with the Pippi pants by La Veste, which also have a flared shape. Ms. Masarin, who lives in Los Angeles, likened the interest in those pairs to that in another style she does not own but has seen on women where she lives: Maryam Nassir Zadeh’s Dance pants ($315), a stretchy pair inspired by athletic wear.
As she recently eyed Bottega Veneta’s Sardine bag, Ms. Masarin said, its price of $4,500 made her pause.
“There’s no way I would spend that much or have anyone know that is the price of my bag,” she said. She added that she felt differently about investing in a pair of pants: “They’re made for living in.”
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