'David Bowie may have got away with them because he was a nonpareil genius'

After a decade of suggesting that men wear skinny jeans, menswear seems to have gone to the other extreme. Designers including Dior have started favouring wide-legged trousers. It's likely to go from catwalk to high street, but clearly not just yet. An internet search for wide-legged men's trousers revealed little, beyond a larger American gentleman angrily protesting that his bum was too big for normal trousers. "Minimal room in the seat," he complained, "does not go over well for men with larger hind parts."

Anyone who finds their hind parts already fit in their trousers might take more convincing. Skinny trousers have a tendency to make anyone of a certain age look like mutton dressed as lamb, but wide legs can make you look as if you're about to take part in the Morecambe And Wise Christmas special, singing There Is Nothing Like A Dame.

The last time men got behind the idea was 40 years ago. There's an amazing photograph of David Bowie pushing his son's pushchair with his hind parts in an immense pair of Oxford bags: should your kids accuse you of embarrassing them, this image will give them a sense of perspective. Alternatively, deploy it if you decide to opt for wide-legged trousers yourself, although the counter-argument – that Bowie got away with them because he was a nonpareil genius who single-handedly changed the face of popular culture and so could do what he wanted, and you probably aren't and therefore can't – could prove tough to overcome.

• Alexis wears shirt £105, by Universal Works, from Urban Outfitters. Trousers £195, by Margaret Howell, from Liberty. Shoes £55, by Vans, from Urban Outfitters, as before.

Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian. Grooming by Lisa Stokes.

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