The history of Capri trousers

FROM THE HISTORY:

CAPRI PANTS also known as three quarter legs, capris, cropped pants are pants that are longer than shorts but are not as long as trousers. They typically come down to between the knee and the ankle. Sonja de Lennart is the woman who invented Capri pants in 1945 and she named her whole collection after her favourite Holiday destination - Capri Island in Italy.

Photo left: Sonja de Lennart in 1945 modelling her first Capri skirt from her Capri collection.

Photo right: A model wearing first Sonja de Lennart’s Capri pants in 1948.

In 1945, after the war, Sonja de Lennart opened her first boutique, Salon Sonja, in Munich. In 1948, after years of women wearing the typical wide and rather masculine pants, de Lennart created the sexy tight three-quarter length Capri pants with the stylish short slit on the outer-side of the pant leg. The original classic Capri Pants were designed in specific lengths for winter and summer wear. In 1949, German actress, Mady Rahl posed for Sonja de Lennart in the original summer- and winter-style Capri pant.

Style Icon Audrey Hepburn worn Sonja de Lennart’s Capri pants in 1954 for her movie “Sabrina”. Later on many celebrities including Marilyn Monroe, Anita Ekberg and Grace Kelly worn her designs. { ref. wikipedia }.

Today:

Capri style pants you can find at almost every designer’s collection and high street shop like Tommy Hilfiger, Zara, H&M, Ted Baker and others. They come in different materials, styles and colour variations to adapt to your own personal style. I think, the skinny leg cropped pants ( called also cropped Chinos ) are the most common today and also wide leg cropped jeans are back on top.

All these different styles of Capri pants will look fashionable and trendy with both - high heels and no heels, but, from my personal point of view, let’s leave the sneakers out of the classy and elegant look.