120. How to Style the Pants Every Woman Wants
The Row’s Gala pants. When I decided we’d write an article about them, I paid a visit to The Row’s concession in Harrods. The kind sales associate informed me that “There isn’t a single pair available to try on anywhere in London right now” before adding, “When we get a delivery, they’re gone within a few hours.” We had a lovely chat, and then I tried on a few other pants that seemed similar before she advised me to “pass” and look for the Gala elsewhere: “There are just no other pants like the Galas.”
A core item in The Row’s collection, the Galas are a pair of pull-on, wide-leg trousers with a clinging bias cut and an elastic waist. They are released in new materials and colorways, season after season. Free of any pleating, tailoring, or cinching, the pants are designed to flatter your natural shape and move with you. Whether they sit high, low, or mid-rise is up to the wearer. They retail for $1,000—$1,300 and are a staple for the brand’s cult followers and beyond.
Whether you have them and hold them dear, are contemplating the investment, or are searching for their exact dupe (in vain, I’m told—more on this below), today’s newsletter asks whose wardrobe these pants are for and goes on a visual journey through their origins and the varied aesthetics the pants lend themselves to.
Note: We packed today’s newsletter with a lot of images and examples, so your email will most likely clip it. Make sure you click “View entire message” to see the full edit.
Heritage Notes
Aesthetically, the Gala pants draw on two prominent styles and techniques from fashion history—the wide-leg pant and the bias cut.
While suffragists advocated women’s pants as early as the 1850s during the Dress Reform movement, the popularization of wide-legged pants by women occurred in the late 1920s and 1930s through loungewear and beachwear. High society saw lounge pajamas, or lounjamas, as an off-duty staple they could wear when lounging and hosting at-home social events. Beach pajamas had widespread appeal. Women wore them when playing sports or on vacation, as they allowed more ease of movement than skirts and stockings did.
Affinity for this type of trousers returned in the ‘60s and ‘70s—another era centered on women’s liberation around reproductive and civil rights and workplace equality — in similar, more outwardly flared styles that we now know as palazzo pants and bell-bottoms.
The bias cut was pioneered in the 1920s-30s by Madeleine Vionnet, who designed bias-cut eveningwear gowns. Designer John Galliano became known in particular for his bias-cut designs. With ’90s minimalism, designers like Calvin Klein and Donna Karan revived pajama-inspired dressing and fluid trousers, and repopularized bias-cut slip dresses.
With the wide-leg pant upholding a history of carefree rebellion and the bias-cut expressing nonchalant, assured sensuality, both styles broke through cultural norms.
Who Are These For Today?
Their slouch and comfort cater to the modern-day woman who is everywhere at once, has a time-consuming job, travels often, and sometimes balances parenthood. They’re for the people who make a hundred micro-decisions before 10 AM every day.
The lure of the Gala appeals to those who want to look sophisticated but feel unfussy. This includes those on a perpetual quest for the perfect black pants to wear to the office on an almost-daily loop.
When we tapped proud Gala owners for this piece, we also heard from many self-proclaimed ‘non-skirt people’. One of them shares: ‘I like how skirts look and feel, but somehow wearing them through the workweek feels like…commitment?’ On the topic of their hip-hugging shape, a late-night internet deep dive led us to a review that warned the pants’ relaxed, slouchy fit carries straight through the leg, including the bum. If you rely on your pants to shape your backside, this ain’t it.
Need we say it? First and foremost, these pants are for those who can afford them or, at the very least, those with a strict quality-before-quantity shopping regimen who prioritize a handful of purchases per year. This newsletter isn’t one for dupes, but the most popular pants with a similar construction—we went through Reddit and Substack chats with a fine-tooth comb—are these specific styles from La Ligne and Enza Costa. You’ll wonder about Gap’s version: it’s a no from the fashion people we trust most on the internet.
How To Style The Gala
On to the reason why we wanted to write today’s newsletter: our readers who complain that they have “bought the right pieces but don’t know how to style them”. We offer inspiration for styling them through the lens of five style subcultures. One thing no one can take away from these pants is their neutrality. The Galas are not just for the minimalists.