Bell-Bottoms
It's from 1970, before you were born.
- Era
- 1970s
- Peak
- 1970–1978
- Signature
- trousers flared from the knee
- Revived
- late '90s; 2010s & 2020s flares
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About
As of 2026, it's 56 years old.
Bell-bottoms ran on one beautifully simple principle: the wider, the better. Trousers that flared dramatically from the knee took over the 1970s — hippies, rock stars, and disco dancers alike — usually with a platform shoe lurking somewhere down in all that fabric.
At their most committed, the flares ballooned into 'elephant bells' so vast they swept the floor and doubled as a functional mop. Practicality was never the goal; the goal was looking unmistakably groovy from a distance of roughly fifty feet.
Flares are fashion's boomerang — back in the late '90s, again in the 2010s, and once more in the 2020s. You can run from the wide leg, but the wide leg always finds you.
Bell-Bottoms through the years
Flares take over
Bell-bottoms move from counterculture to mainstream.
Disco peak
Saturday Night Fever cements the flared silhouette.
First big revival
Flares return to late-'90s wardrobes.
'70s revival
Wide-leg flares surge again.
