Trousers – they’re not rocket science. But there are plenty of ways to mess them up, or to elevate them above their primary role of covering legs. A classic styling trick has emerged recently: the turn-up. Harry Styles had them for his pinstripe trews at the Brits, actor Chase Infiniti turned her trousers up at Paris fashion week and hefty turn-ups feature on baggy blue and ecru jeans and olive-green track trousers in JW Anderson’s latest collection for Uniqlo.
Turn-ups are the bread and butter of preppy labels such as J Crew-adjacent brand Alex Mill. Head to the website of this New York label and turned-up jeans paired with purple loafers and pink socks, or with letterbox-red ballet flats and yolk-yellow socks, will wash over you like salt spray. At John Lewis, meanwhile, turn-ups run the gamut from pencil-thin to the depth of an Oxford English Dictionary.
Aurora Benson, a branded womenswear buying manager at John Lewis, has “seen a significant move toward the turn-up” among street stylers at recent fashion weeks. “It’s a simple way to update existing denim, adding immediate visual interest to an outfit without the need for extra layers,” she says.
As with the recent resurgence of Sperry Top-Siders, beaten-up baseball caps and worn-in rugby shirts (I don’t want to utter the initials JFK Jr here, but we’re all thinking them), turn-ups have come straight out of the preppy fashion playbook that has recently been adding a touch of New England scruffy-glamour to sartorial proceedings. In the 1980 Official Preppy Handbook, a tongue-in-cheek guide to the styling habits of the upper crust – turn-ups, or trouser cuffs as they’re also known, are considered a must.
Muffy Aldrich is the editor of the blog Salt Water New England: The Thing Before Preppy, where she publishes everything from clam chowder reviews to LL Bean tote styling tips. She says turn-ups, for all of their Ivy League, American east-coast associations, “have British origins. Reportedly King Edward VII rolled up his trousers at Ascot, thus ensuring their immortality.”
“As with everything preppy, cuffs are returned to because they are perfect,” says Aldrich. “À la Delft tiles, old Land Rovers, or a Latin quote, they just work,” she says. “The right cuffs always look right.”
Like the French tuck or the popped collar, the trouser turn-up might be a small detail, but it’s mighty. Their power, according to Aldrich, lies in the fact that they “allow a garment to be both crisp and ready for horsing around. They are functional, with the weight of the cuffs helping trousers look straight and presentable.”
“Classic preps,” she says, love them so much that “they wear them even when it makes no sense, like on boats, despite [them] getting caught on cleats. Or in the field, despite [them] getting filled up with pine needles.”
But there can be effort behind their apparent ease. According to the Guardian’s styling editor, Melanie Wilkinson, “in theory they seem like a very simple update”. But, “in practice, success hinges on lots of factors”. Take, for example, if your jeans are too wide: “the turn-up will flap about and fall down”. The “ideal shape is a close-fitting straight leg, or a slightly tapered leg”. A single turn-up “can look unfinished, but on the other hand a double turn-up can look bulky … so they need to be long enough to handle the double roll-over.”
If you’re turning up a jean, the quality of denim also makes a difference. “Stiff selvedge is ideal as it’s denser,” says Melanie – “it really holds the shape. High-street styles which have elastane mixed in and aren’t woven so tightly make the turn-up harder.”
Somsack Sikhounmuong, creative director of Alex Mill, who turns up his painter pants, jeans, and chinos, suggests “about a one-inch” cuff, which is usually the height of a turn-back hem on most pants. Aldrich believes that “while many say that a cuff should be between 1.5 and 1.75 inches … 1.5 is closer to perfect”.
So why is this particular styling trick tickling our ankles? According to Sikhounmuong: “Everything in fashion is connected – over-the-knee boots trend when skirts shorten, loud colours reemerge after seasons of ‘quiet luxury’, and cuffed hems are no different. After seasons of noteworthy footwear (beading, fun colours), it makes sense to roll up your pants and show off those shoes.”
For Aldrich, the question is why do they ever go out of style? “For clothing companies, they represent extra cloth,” she says, “so they are removed to cut costs.” But also, when “some clothing companies turn them into fashion they make them flashy,” something that is, she says, “an antithetical concept to the prep ethos”.
“Designers make cuffs too big, and as with shoulders on jackets or fins on cars, by making them trendy, they assure their obsolescence one or two seasons hence.” But, she says, “the right size turn-up cuff represents an insulation from trendiness. Since getting cuffs done the right size represents a bit of an effort these days, they give a distinctive look. And better yet, they do it without most people being able to pinpoint why.”
To read the complete version of this newsletter – complete with this week’s trending topics in The Measure and your wardrobe dilemmas solved – subscribe to receive Fashion Statement in your inbox every Thursday.