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Tina, here.

We need to have a town hall meeting today. On the agenda: a discussion about spring's newest trend and latest look, Cropped Pants. Folks, it may look like evil capris are staging a comeback. But in fact, we are dealing with a new kind of pant. Confusing cropped pants with evil capris poses a risk to all of us. We can't have any interlopers skulking about, injecting misinformation (and bad style) on unsuspecting souls.

This is a cropped pant. Similar to what we called the kick flare last spring. And it's still strong this season, with most retailers referring to them as cropped pants.

These are evil capris. Some may call them cropped. They hit mid-shin, at the widest part of your shins, so your legs look thick. And short (only as long as the pants). And your ankles look huge (like they reach up to the bottom of the pants). So they are evil capris.

These are straight jeans. But they are too long. So you have elephant ankles. I like to cuff straight jeans to right above the ankle.

Here you can see the straight jeans on the left have been cuffed, to essentially look like ankle jeans, or skinny jeans as they are often called. I am wearing bootcut jeans on the right. Both of these styles are acceptable. (I'm pointing out the position of the back pockets.)

And these are this spring's cropped pants.

Let's review. If your pants are cropped, they must not be tapered, or too short (evil capris). They must either be straight cropped or cropped with a bit of a kick flare (which is why I like that descriptive name). Might sound like we're splitting hairs, but good style is a game of millimeters, after all.

Cropped pants are full from the waist down (not tapered), and should hit no more than an inch or two above your ankle bone.

This kind of cropped pant style is what my mother called patio pants because it's what you would wear to host a cocktail party on your patio. For some reason, I became obsessed with finding a pair about 15 years ago, and the ONLY place to find them was Goodwill (because who was wearing them then?). These are my prize. And the sweet thing is, they are hand sewn. I so wish I knew the 1970's hostess who wore them.

Full to the ankles, and hitting slightly above. Gotta show some ankle in these kinds of fuller, straight pants.

Insiders, to see and shop more outfits with cropped pants, shop our latest Vault Collection, and don't miss our Spring Must-Haves Collection.

Thanks for reading!

Best,

Tina