Some styles are proof of life working against designer fashion. Take bootcut trousers. This particular silhouette may not have been even remotely fashionable - at catwalk level, at least - for a good two years, but it remains almost impossible to find a pair of jeans that doesn’t flare, if only slightly, at the knee. From designer denims such as 7 For All Mankind, James Preserved and Earl, to the high-street stalwarts Levi’s and Gap, the vast majority of jeans are relatively low-rise, tight to the knee and then kick to the ankle to accommodate, well, to accommodate a boot, neatly enoughThe reason behind the silhouette’s ubiquity? There are too many women out there who swear by its transformative powers for them to be ignored. Boot-cut trousers make their hips look more slender, their legs longer, they say. Boot-cut trousers compensate for a multitude of sins in the bottom department, a less-than-perfect behind hovering above two dead- straight skinny sticks like an airship not being the finest of looks to behold. Oh, and the low- rise effect is more comfortable, as anyone who has recently tried to button themselves up into a pair of high-waisted trousers will confirm. And pity those of us who grew up sans stretch-denim in the Eighties: clothing-induced colic was only to be expected way back then. Boot-cut trousers have their detractors, however. Purists in particular know that high-waisted, poker-straight, or even drainpipe, trousers are now de rigueur, and they are therefore not amused by Saturday afternoons spent searching the streets for that particular holy grail in vain. Boot- cut trousers are too mainstream to be seen wearing, this fashion faction argues. Most heinous of all? Tucking a pair of heels beneath voluminous, boot-cut folds. This is the preserve of the West London It Girl, and even the more forward-thinking among them now tuck their jeans into boots, thank you.

It will perhaps come as no surprise that the man who booted the boot- cut trouser unceremoniously off the runway in the first place was Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga. When, for spring/summer 2003, Ghesquiere sent out a collection, uncompromising even by his label’s standards, of neoprene- look skintight minidresses and trousers that were not only high-waisted but also narrow from thigh to ankle, the rest of the world took note. Cue a slew of return-of-the-waist style editorials everywhere, from the pages of this newspaper to those of Vogue. And the waist duly returned, causing joy among those critical of the hitherto ubiquitous exposed midriff, at least. Except that jeans remained flared. In real, as opposed to fashion, life the boot- cut silhouette proved impossible to shift. Even Ghesquiere’s devotees had to admit that, while lovely to behold, these new proportions were by no means easy for even the most blessed of women to wear.

It was, of course, the catwalk that was responsible for the reinvention of flared trousers in the first place. Sailor’s trousers - cut wide in the leg to enable those on deck to roll them up should flooding occur - were, of course, the original article, but it’s safe to say that such fashion emergencies rarely hit Bond Street. People took to flares again because they looked rather good. Throughout the Seventies, bell-bottoms were also the only trousers to be seen wearing.

This meant, naturally, that by the Eighties the silhouette had been sent without ceremony to fashion Siberia. In the mid-Nineties, however, a leggier look, inspired by Alexander McQueen, who looked to the long, lean silhouette of the Thirties and Forties for inspiration, and popularised by Tom Ford - the man who made disco fashionable once more - appeared on the runways and then on the streets. Ford, in particular, ensured that every high- street chain was filled with low-rise, boot-cut trousers, preferably black and with just the right amount of stretch… Of course, women the world over loved him for it, and continue to do so to this day. For McQueen’s part, even 10 years on, he remains partial to a flared or boot-cut trouser.

And the good news is, come autumn/winter 2005, none other than Nicolas Ghesquiere has decreed that the boot-cut is back. With more than a few designers focusing on commerce as well as innovation, this seems like a pragmatic move as well as an aesthetically pleasing one. Yes, having been a committed straight-legged trouser designer since autumn/ winter 2001 - and five years is a long time in fashion - this highly influential figure has decreed that, just over six months from now, flares will again be fashionable.

Given this designer’s past form, who are we to argue? Apart from anything else, for the vast majority of us, boot-cut trousers had never gone away