Will you try the new nip-tuck?

THERE WAS A new nip-tuck doing the rounds at last week’s London Fashion Week, but this time of the non-surgical variety. Forget Botox, the buzz is around boots or, to be specific, the street-style trend for tucking your trousers into said boots.

This isn’t a skinny-jeans-knee-high-boot situation. That ship’s sailed. In 2020, your trousers need to be slightly baggy so that they’re nipped in – hence the term nip-tuck – and puff ever-so-slightly over the top of your boot. Katie Holmes dipped her toe, or make that calf, into the trend at Ulla Johnson’s show at New York Fashion Week, with a pair of balloon-leg jeans tucked into knee-high boots. The nip-tuck has so arrived on the catwalk in Milan. At Alberta Ferretti’s show, paperbag-waist trousers were slipped into slouchy suede boots. The result is almost swashbuckling and, with trouser hems safely stashed away, suitable for all weathers.

As well as wanting to avoid puddles, the trend is a brilliant way to showcase your boots. ‘It’s all about the boot right now,’ says Aeyde’s co-founder and managing director Luisa Dames. ‘When we buy amazing boots, we want to show them off !’ The brand’s croc-effect Charlie is ‘fun, playful and best worn with your jeans’, she says.

Let Tiffany Hsu, fashion buying director at Mytheresa.com and aficionado of the nip-tuck, be your guide. She says the technique makes trousers ‘look less serious’ and suggests carrot-leg shapes that are roomy at the thigh, slim at the calf and high on the waist so that your bottom half is naturally elongated. For boots, look for styles that aren’t skin-tight. ‘Isabel Marant does really good mid-length styles with slouch,’ says Tiffany, while, ‘Bottega Veneta’s military boots are my forever love.’

And if you’re still wondering how all that baggy material stays put? Tiffany has a tip up her sleeve. ‘I fold them nicely and tuck them into knee-high socks.’ Now you know that, there’s no excuse not to try the nip-tuck.