Harem pants or harem trousers are baggy, long trousers caught in at the ankle. Early on, the style was also called a harem skirt.[ The term 'harem pants' subsequently became popular in the West as a generic term for baggy trousers caught in at the ankle that suggest the Turkish style, or similar styles such as bloomers, the South Asian shalwar kameez and patiala salwar; the Bosnian dimije; sirwal (as worn by ); and the Ukrainian sharovary.
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Early 20th century
In 1911, the Paris couturier Paul Poiret introduced harem pants as part of his efforts to reinvent and 'liberate' Western female fashion.[ These designs were seen as controversial as Western women typically did not wear trousers.][ Poiret's explicit exoticism and references to Middle Eastern styles, using the imagery of and to establish his Orientalism style, was widely regarded as immoral and inappropriately sexualised.][ Poiret himself insisted that he designed harem pants for the chic woman to show off "the harmony of her form and all the freedom of her native suppleness."][ Adam Geczy suggests that harem pants, as a direct cultural appropriation, represent the point at which Western fashion began seriously challenging traditional cultural claims to their own styles.][ Although Poiret is often credited with single-handedly inventing trousers for Western women, the couturier Jeanne Margaine-Lacroix presented wide-legged trousers in 1910,]
Late 20th century
Harem pants came back into fashion in the 1980s, when they were remembered for being 'costumey.'[ In The 80s — Clothes of the Eighties, Harem Pants]
Contemporary harem pants
Harem pants are commonly worn with a pleated skirt—a short skirt that covers the top portion of the harem pants. Both harem pants and pleated skirts are commonly used in Belly dance.
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