Monday, July 16, 2012

The sisterhood of Thom Yorke's travelling pants


(No, this pair wasn't worn by Thom Yorke.)

For the last year, I've been trying to hunt down a nice pair of red cotton pants. I didn't care too much about these being a "statement piece" or whatever -- I was mostly fixated with owning them since Thom Yorke of Radiohead regularly wears them during concerts. One thing I knew was that I didn't want to pay designer prices for them. I tried lots of places: Express, Forever 21 (in-store), Old Navy, Target... and either the red wasn't vibrant enough, the material was too spandex-y, or they were too skinny legged.

I finally went online to Forever 21's website and found an interesting pair here. The only thing I was uncomfortable with is that they labelled them as Twill Skinny Pants. I didn't want that tight leggings look. After reading some of the reviews, I bought the pants in the same size that I normally wear in F21 jeans, as they were reported to run a little large anyway. (I also bought another pair in mint in the same size, which is no longer available on their site.)

When they finally arrived, something curious occurred: the red pair were very baggy, while the mint pair were very tight (like how they are pictured on the F21 website). I checked the labels and they said they were the same size, though. Let that be a caveat to you buying these pants sight unseen.


(I'm still working on finding a place to take full body outfits. The graphic on the right of this picture covers up some unattractive looking outlets and wiring.)

In honor of Thom, I found a white T-shirt (American Apparel) and my vest (Express) and threw my tribute outfit together. Yeah, they're really baggy, but I prefer that to tight in this particular color. I'll probably use a belt with these pants. The good news is that they were only $15.80 each, and I grabbed some coupon code floating around online for 10% off.

I'd actually consider buying the other color variations of these pants, but I can't predict what sort of wacky sizing I might get next. If you're close to a F21 store that carries all the colors, you should try them on first, or at least be willing to return or exchange the ones you buy online.