Lazo Trouser Hacks: Style Inspiration
Christmas is quickly approaching so this will be my 2nd to last post about the Lazos before a short holiday. I will be posting about some Christmassy Lazo outfits on Friday and then will be taking a break from blogging until January 2nd. We will be kicking off the New Year with all the fitting posts, tutorials and Lazo Hacks that I have been promising to you!
Today’s post is meant to get your creative juices flowing before you have a chance to cut into your Lazo Trousers fabric. I imagine many of us will be too busy spending time with family until the end of the month to actually delve in to sewing something for ourselves – that’s no problem! It just gives you more time to daydream about your creations and post about your pattern hack ideas!
As you are aware, I am hosting a Lazo Hack contest that runs until the end of January. I will be awarding prizes at random until January 31st so the more often and sooner you enter, the higher your chance of winning a prize! Prizes will include digital gift certificates to a great selection of sewing shops and all sorts of goodies that will be mailed to you (worldwide!). Yes…some of our gorgeous Merchant & Mills tools and books will be given away as prizes!
To enter the contest, draw a sketch, share an inspiring photo, take a snap shot of the supplies you’ve gathered, post your WIP, create a tutorial, or share a photo of your finished Lazos! Use #lazotrousers on Instagram or Facebook or email me at info@threadtheory.ca with your images.
The contest is meant to inspire creative interpretations of our Lazo Trousers pattern – meaning you could alter the pattern to suit a figure other than the recommended hourglass shape, you could change the pleats to gathers, you could add width to the legs, or you could even just sew the pattern as is but style it differently than I have done! Anything is fair game!
You don’t need to actually sew your Lazo Hack idea – you could post sketches of a dozen ideas and then pick your favourite to sew. The more entries, the merrier!
I will be contributing to the Lazo Hack contest by hacking the Lazos into the comfiest and prettiest sweatpants featuring a mock fly, a drawstring waistband, and deliciously cozy terry knit fabric. Stay tuned for a tutorial to create this in January!
Now that you know the details about the Lazo Hack contest, here are some of the inspiration photos that I gathered before drafting the Lazo Trousers in school:
The image on the left is a sketch that I made for my Lazo Trousers design. Sorry for her creepy blank stare – we were told to turn our sketch into a vector (so it could be coloured in digitally on the computer) and I discovered that this is NOT something I excelled at naturally! All of the other images come from a Pinterest Board that I have created for the Lazos. Click on any of the collages in this post to link to the Pinterest board. Unfortunately, I believe you need a Pinterest account (which is free) to view the board but I’ve displayed most of my inspiration in this post for you to view anyways!
As you can see from the five images of modern store bought trousers, I was taken with the idea of a loose, pleated front with stovepipe legs. I noticed, as I was selecting images, that I always preferred the overall silhouette of trousers that sat at the natural waist (instead of the hips). This was a bit of an epiphany for me since, prior to creating an inspiration board, I was sure I preferred very low rise trousers!
Next up, we have these tiny skirt and palazzo trouser images above. They come from Pinterest…which is a great source of inspiration and an exellent way to organize thoughts but it can be hard to find high quality images or original sources! A fitted waistband with a full skirt attached (a dirndl skirt) is my most comfortable silhoutte…but I find I can never wear it because all that fabric is not very practical for dog walking, bike riding, and generally living actively. The free feeling of wearing one of these skirts or palazzo pants paired with the practicality of trousers = my goal for the Lazo Trousers.
The fashion line that I created while in school was called ‘Rationed Fashion’ and it was inspired by British women’s fashion during the second world war. Rationing led to an appreciation of hard wearing fabrics. Women had to select their clothing to suit their new jobs (and often wore uniforms for their work). Design details were subtle and functional so that the garments would remain wearable for many years. I hadn’t watched the show Land Girls yet when I designed the Lazo Trousers but, the Land Girls uniform was exactly what I had in mind (second image from the right, above). As you can see in the photos above, jodhpurs or breeches have often been a working or adventuring woman’s go-to pair of trousers in the last 100 years. They were popular for aviators and equestrian women in the 1910s and 1920s. They were a staple of wartime working women in the 1940s. And there have been periods throughout the 1970s and 80s when trousers with fitted waists, roomy thighs, and fitted calves were in vogue. It is a functional style because it allows full range of movement without excess fabric getting in the way.
The wide Lazo Trouser waistband and slash pockets provide a great blank canvas for small design details. Leather or vinyl buckles are my go to choice but you can also feature self fabric buckles, statement buttons, self fabric covered buttons, or even those beautiful frog closures that are always in fabric stores but rarely get used!
Quite a few of you have shared your ideas for the Lazos with me so far (not as contest entries, but instead as comments…you guys should sketch your ideas and submit them as contest entries!). There are many people planning to make safari style Lazos and there are a couple of you planning to cut in to tartan wool and use kilt buckles. And a number of you want to add width to the legs to create elegant palazzo pants. I’m so excited to see your creations!