Buying Pants: What You Need to Know

Pants Pull at My Thighs but Fit Elsewhere. What Do I Do?

• Invest in wide-leg bootcuts or stovepipe trousers, which will balance out your legs from top to bottom, suggests Dawn Baker, a former stylist and the owner of the Los Angeles boutique Happy LA. Otherwise, she says, pants will cling to saddlebags. She suggests Raven Tailored trousers to flatter this figure.

• “Be cautious of too much stretch―anything over 4 percent,” warns Patty Fox, chief creative officer for Myshape.com, a website that specializes in fitting body types. (Check the garment label for elastane or spandex.) “A firm fabric holds you in better because it doesn’t pull,” she says.

• Skip flared cuts―they make knees look skinny and thighs bigger.