#FashTag: #DoTheSplits

A micro-trend that I’ve noticed appearing on the high street recently is mismatched legs, particularly on jeans and leggings. It’s an attention seeking look for sure, and in order to pull it off correctly it needs a large dose of confidence and an equally large measure of attitude. So far I’ve seen the trend most predominantly used as part of a monochrome scheme with one leg black and the other white, as demonstrated by the young fashionista Lourdes Leon. In another form of mismatched legs I have also seen the same black/white contrast used but split so that the front of the trouser is white, and the back is black (See Aqua leggings below). Although I speak not from experience, I believe this style would be the more flattering form of wearing split legs, particularly as the black back panelling would form a slimming outline around the white from a front-on view.

House of Holland for Pretty Polly, £15

The clashing legs look has also been more boldly approached by the likes of House of Holland through the use of mismatched prints. The most recent House of Holland for Pretty Polly collection cashes in on the Olympics and Jubilee with the use of flag prints – the Union Jack, the Australian flag (oddly enough), and of course the USA flag under that ever-exhausted stars and stripes trend. Now usually I consider the stars and stripes trend snore-worthy; it occurs year after year and as a proud Brit I feel it gives off a strange political image to be wearing another country’s flag. However, having said all this, the split legs look seems to take the snore out, so much so that I’m tempted to invest. The key to this look of course is to keep the rest minimal – clashing patterned legs need to be counter-balanced by a simple plain t-shirt in order to keep the look wearable and not too busy.

So far I’ve only managed to spy out a select few split-leg items, my favourites definitely being the black/leopard print contrast jeans which I found buried on the urban outfitters website. However, I predict that we’ll be seeing a lot more of this micro-trend over the coming weeks and I’d personally love to see some examples in clashing florals. Here’s what I’ve found so far: