Bell-bottoms are trousers that become wider from the knees downwards. Related styles include flare, loon pants and boot-cut/leg trousers. Hip-huggers are bell-bottomed, flare, or boot-cut pants that are fitted tightly around the hips and thighs worn by men and women.

Naval origins

Bell-bottoms in the 1960s and 1970s

Today, the original men's bell bottom pants and flares from the 1970s are collectible vintage clothing items. Worn by men to attend retro theme disco parties, worn in retro revival bands, and to wear clubbing - men's bell bottom pants are a popular fashion item from the 1970s.

Loon pants (shortened from "balloon pants") were one type of bell-bottomed trousers. They flared more from the knee than typical bell-bottoms, in which more of the entire leg was flared. They were a 1970s fashion, and could initially only be bought via catalog from a company in Britain which advertised in the back of the New Musical Express.Fact: date=March 2007 They were usually worn with a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and sandals. They became associated with disco music. When the disco backlash started in 1979, bell bottoms started to go out of fashion along with leisure suits and other clothes that had become associated with disco. Elephant bells, popular in the early and mid 1970s, were similar to loon pants but typically made of denim. Elephant bells had a marked flare below the knee, often covering the wearer's shoes.

Flare and boot-cut jeans in the 1990s

In the late 1980s, during the rise of acid house and the Second Summer of Love, bell bottoms became popular again in women's and men's fashion in Europe spreading to the Americas. They were initially reintroduced as boot-cut (also spelled "boot cut" or "bootcut"), tapering to the knee and loosening around the ankle to accommodate a boot. Over time, the width of the hem grew wider and the term "flare-leg" was favored in marketing over the term "bell-bottom". As with boot-cut hems, the trend began in Europe and spread rapidly around the world. Today both boot-cut and flare-leg pants remain popular both in denim and higher quality office wear. In menswear straight-leg also gave way to boot-cut looks, again initially in Europe, and has made its leap into flare-leg for officewear, the same as what has happened in womenswear. In most cases men's boot-cut and women's boot-cuts differ. Women's jeans are tight to the knee and then flare out slightly to the hem while men's styles are usually flared/loose all the way from crotch to hem. The bell-bottoms of the '60s and '70s can generally be distinguished from the flare or boot-cut pants of the '90s by the tightness of the knee.