Fashion Challenge: How To Style Skirts Over Pants

The last time you wore a skirt or dress over pants in good conscience was most likely to an Avril Lavigne concert...with flip-flops, braces, and a terrycloth wristband, no less. These days, there's probably no other layering technique that'll elicit such extreme, knee-jerk negativity than wearing a skirt or dress over a pair of trousers — and for good reason. The past iterations of the trend — boot-cut denim with babydoll dresses, work slacks with sweater dresses, cargo pants with fitted jersey wraps — were pretty heinous.

Good thing recent runway ensembles have provided sleek, not sloppy, innovations to this look, convincing us to reconsider. Sure, they look good on models, but can they handle the real-life streets? We tested out five different ways to wear this layering trend. How did we do?