Whoa there, three-hundred-and-twenty-eight dollar hammer pants. We love you. We love you because you sold out all summer from the various designers that decided to make you and now, in the wee hours of fall, you've delivered from a designer we trust and at a price we can afford. We promise we will try not to cheat on you.

These slouchy brushed twill trousers will probably sell out in a week or two, unless, because it's Shopbop, they miraculously sit there for a month. But seriously, we're guessing fashionistas worldwide have caught onto this trend by now. Judging by the fit on the model, these trousers run big. She is probably wearing a zero but, even though they are meant to billow, they still look kind of gigantic on her (the waist should be tighter, no?). So, ladies, that means if you wear a size 26 jean (and not a 24) you should probably still by the size zero, and so on. Oh, just when we thought we were going to die from fashion-starvation, we find these goodies. Looks like we'll survive August after all.

Our network partner's post was the icing on the sweet, cavity-inducing cake that is The Hammer Pant Trend. This morning, wanting a fresh, fashion-forward look for Monday morning at the office, That's Chic snapped a pic of herself wearing H&M's latest incarnation of the pant of the summer. In her post on the outfit, she references another network partner of ours, a miss Style Bubble, who mused on the trend back in, ahem, August 2007. We might officially put this topic to bed, but before we do, we just can't help bringing back our posts on the silhouette that is holding our hand while we transition from skinny jeans to wider styles.

On Friday afternoon, in Phone Tag, we called 3.1 Phillip Lim to make sure they didn't have any harem pants left. A few months ago we got immaterial over a Rick Owens pair of drop-crotch trousers. We've also referenced the trend numerous times and had many a conversation over this punctuation mark in the changing silhouette. It also deserves a mention that, in the blogsphere, the conversation was being put to bed around the same time a certain fashion magazine wrote a nice little article on how, gasp, 'they're everywhere!'. A final sendoff to the pant that's given us so much content? The YSL Fall 08 version, our favorite by far (not to mention that haircut, which is, as we speak, taking New York by storm) and definitely a version that will not be forgotten.

This just in: we're pretty sure the 3.1 Phillip Lim Harem Pants are sold out everywhere. Those perfectly priced, opening number harem trousers are scarce with a capital 'see you next season'. Though Phillip Lim puts out, season after season, a diverse selection of cropped trousers, these were by far the most fashionable. Judging by our ecommerce searching skills and our conversation with the clerk at the Mercer Street store, all of Lim's incarnations of baggy cropped trousers (editorialized like no other garment this season) are running thin. For the details, here's how it went down...

"Hello, 3.1 Phillip Lim"
"Hi there. I'm calling about a pair of trousers I saw in a magazine. I think they are, like, harem or hammer pants?"
"Oh, the tuxedo trousers?"

[Basically this is where we fully realize the extent to which Lim has put out baggy, cropped trousers. We see them in the shows but only when you're on the phone with a clerk for 15 minutes discussing their various titles do you realize just how extensive his interest in this silhouette is. Needless to say, this part is edited down.]

"No, you know, they were the opening number during the Spring 08 show."
"Ohhhhhh, the harem pants."
"Yeah, that's basically what I said when I first rang. Anyway, do you have any? They've been in almost every magazine and on so many fashionable New York women, I just have to get a pair!"
"Ewww...You know what?"
"What?"
"We just sold the last pair four minutes ago."

She meant, for the season. So, it looks like the Phillip Lim harem pant is a no-go unless you're willing to weed through the plentiful number of boutiques and e-commerce sites that stock the brand. According to our research, there are none online and most boutiques never bought the pants to begin with (instead they opted for Lim's party frocks and little jackets--safe bets). If you're focused, we bet you can still find a pair. Or, you could forego the Lim in favor of another version. To that end, here are our picks below,





Image to right, part of a Nylon Magazine editorial. One of many magazines to pull Lim's cropped trousers for their summer issues.

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