harem pants

plural noun

1. women's pants usually made of soft fabric and having full legs gathered at the ankle.

Word History and Origins

Origin of harem pants¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

Early versions featured a more modestly scaled jacket that landed just below the derrière — like one worn by a teenage Malcolm X. Later examples, known as “extreme drapes,” had long coats that hit the knee and trousers so baggy they could be confused for harem pants.

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Then it’s right back to knights in white satin and the realization that men’s gauze harem pants were once an instrument of liberation.

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Paltrow — wearing a cream-colored knit sweater, tweed harem pants and aviator-style reading glasses — shielded her face from photographers using a blue “GP”-initialed notebook as she entered and exited the courtroom.

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Ingres and Matisse transformed the reclining body into an odalisque, dressing their women in sheer harem pants and silk turbans, decorating them with bejeweled peacock-feather fans.

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The fruits of a violent imperial system lie behind the work’s bright, bouncy “Chinese” dance, with its pleated fans and parasols, and its slow, seductive “Arabian” scene, with ballerinas in gossamer harem pants.

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