A Shockingly Chic Way to Wear Culottes This Summer (Just Hear Me Out)

A few short hours before she did the most iconic thing, well, ever (that being wearing the same S/S 98 Gucci by Tom Ford sheath dress that Anna Wintour wore way back when to an outing alongside Andre Leon Talley), Hailey Bieber stepped out in another buzzworthy look. The Rhode founder was spotted in Tribeca ahead of the Met Gala on Monday shopping at La Garçonne, a multi-brand retailer known for its curation of cool-girl labels like Dries Van Noten, The Row, and Issey Miyake. She went for a casual ensemble, including a vintage Mercedes baseball cap, a cropped black tee, and—here comes the buzzy part—culottes. Yes, I said culottes.

More specifically, she wore black, low-rise, tailored culottes with a favourite shoe trend of Bieber’s, heeled thong sandals, which paired perfectly with the length and style of her shorts-pants hybrid bottoms.

(Image credit: Backgrid)

On Hailey Bieber: Toteme Kitten Heel Flip Flops (£370); The Row bag

Culottes aren’t super easy to style, which might explain why they’ve been considered “out” for years now. But after Bermuda shorts took over for hot pants a few seasons ago, the door was left propped open for culottes to make a comeback. And now that Bieber’s shown off an actually chic and wearable way to style them, I can’t help but consider the fact that culottes might actually return to fashion’s good graces. I’m in. HBU?

If so, keep scrolling. I’ve rounded up a mix of shoppable options—from affordable takes by Zara and COS to designer alternatives by The Row and Alaïa.