The rise of wide-legged trousers has coincided with the fall of skinny over the past decade. Stylist Ms Ilaria Urbinati, who counts Glover and Mr Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as clients, is a fan. She says wide legs are refreshing after the dominance of skinny shapes. “I just love that silhouette when done right,” she says. “I also got to a point where I couldn’t look at another skinny pant. We beat that horse dry.”

With both Glover and Johnson, Urbinati says wider trousers allow for a retro point of view. “[It adds] a lot of swagger and style,” she says. “It can [be] 1970s Scorsese films vibes, as I’ve done on Donald a lot, which is more of a wide bottom. Or more 1990s Armani, which is more of a pleated silhouette.”

Louche, elegant and chic, this take on wide-leg lends itself to evening events in particular. Mr David Bowie, as photographed for his Hunky Dory album in 1971, provides an aspirational template.

Of course, another era that explored wide-legged shapes is the 1990s, as part of Britain’s rave culture. With images of this scene pored over by a new generation, it’s no surprise that wider-than-average jeans look appealing again. They come with a built-in nostalgia – even if most people looking at these images would have been children (or younger) when raving in a field was a regular weekend activity.

Taken before social media, images of raves symbolise an authenticity and come with a lost take on hedonism, one that sees clubbing beyond a way to find a partner, as something more meaningful and even transcendent. The jeans embody this history, too. “If dancing is typically viewed as a vertical expression of a horizontal desire, then the communal adoption of the extra wide trouser was a denial of that,” says Professor Andrew Groves, the director of the Westminster Menswear Archive. “[It implies] that rave was more about a communal spiritual experience than a sexual one.”

In 2023, wide-legged jeans and trousers hold this history in every swish, but they also reflect more modern concerns. Groves argues that, because they are not showcasing the body wearing them, they reveal how the binary in how we dress is becoming less important. “You could see a correlation with the focus on gender fluidity and how it is represented – or not – through the wearer’s clothing,” he explains. “Clothes that sit away from the wearer make reading the body beneath – and making assumptions – more difficult, resulting in a more neutral reading of the person wearing them.”

Mr Rick Owens is a designer who always embraces drama within a silhouette, as he has this season – with extremely chic satin wide-leg trousers pooling over shoes in his show. “There’s a sense of pageantry to wearing a lot of fabric,” he said by email, noting that the pronounced front creases in his trousers are a means of bringing the fluidity of the shape under control. “It has the advantage of being sumptuous and modest at the same time,” he writes.

Transitioning to this more modern silhouette can, as Saka expresses, be a process, especially if you’re coming out of the reassuring familiarity of that skinny shape. Urbinati advises to take it slowly. “Baby steps,” she says. “Maybe don’t jump to a super baggy leg – just aim for a little more slouch, or more of a straight leg. And find what works with your body type and your style.” She recommends Lemaire and Margaret Howell as good places to start, and wider shoes like brogues as footwear to go with the new shape.

It will pay to get used to the silhouette now, because it’s not going anywhere. “What appeared to be a microtrend a just a couple years ago has now become the norm,” Groves says.

Urbinati predicts that we might eventually get to a place where it’s less a case of either or – and more about exploring options. “[So] the same guy can rock a skinny suit one day and a wide-pleated leg the next,” she says. “This is how it should be. Play, have fun, try on different things. If it feels good, you’ll pull it off.”