Denim	Corduroy	Mixed fibres

The most common fabric for flares is, of course, denim. This is a special weave of cotton, so that one of the fibres is not visible from the outside (which is why it is often a different colour on the inside). Lycra or other substances can be added to give the fabric the ability to stretch, and a variety of means are used to give the fabric a faded look. It is thick, heavy, hard-wearing and immensely popular. We also include fake denims here - fabrics which look like denim but are thinner and lighter.

Another common fabric is corduroy. This is similar to velvet (see below), in that it has a long nap, but only in narrow strips, and is also quite popular (particularly with us). Many trousers which are not denim or corduroy are made of fabrics of mixed fibres (various mixes of cotton, polyester, viscose, rayon, acrylic and so on), and these are the traditional "smart" trousers. If these are added to the denim and corduroy, then about 99% of flares will be accommodated, leaving only 1% (or so - I'm guessing) of flares for the rarer materials.

Leather	Suede	Plastic	"PVC"

Despite the ubiquity of denim and corduroy flares, many other fabrics are available for flareing, if you want something a little sexier, a little lighter, or just something a bit different. You may like to choose from

• leather
• plastics
• suede
• lace
• velvet
• wool
• canvas
• silk
• satin
• crepe
• linen

Leather and suede are not allowed for vegans, so if you are vegan and you want the leather look, then plastic is worth a try. It's also a lot cheaper. Leather and plastic also have the advantage of being more or less waterproof. Lace is very striking and can be used for part of the flares (e.g. just the panels) or for the whole garment, but if your trousers are made of lace (as in the picture below), make sure you're wearing nice (under-)pants, because they'll be visible underneath! For an example of canvas flares, see the picture on our links page.

Lace	Velvet	Wool

Crepe	Satin	Silk	Rubber

Silk is very light and smooth, and quite expensive, and flares are not often made of silk, although we have found one picture (left) of silk trousers which are at least boot-cut. A cheaper alternative is satin, a shiny, smooth weave made from polyester, rayon, silk or some other materials. The black pair below has one leg tucked away to show the admirable extent of the flare. Latex (rubber) is not an obvious material to choose for flares, since it is famous for its stretchiness, and for being skin-tight. However, some people have managed to make flared rubber trousers, as this picture indicates. This, along with other materials, such as PVC (pictured above), chain-mail (not pictured), etc., will make people think that you're kinky. Or worse. But maybe that's what you want....

Fleece	Ovenmitt

There are many other fabrics, but we haven't been able to find any evidence of their being used for flares. Felt, crinoline, taffeta, baize and others, could be used for flares, but have not been for some reason. I have, however, found fleece flares for sale, at Haiku Apparel, and also flares made from whatever it is that oven-mitts are made of.

Tie-dyeing is very popular among hippies, and so has been used on trousers, but I've not been able to find any pictures of tie-dyed flares. It is, however, an option for those who want their trousers to be a little less plain.

Tweed	Plaid	Paisley	Floral	Pinstripe

Another good way of making flares more interesting, or at least different from everyday blue denim, is to use a fabric with a built-in pattern, like those shown above. Patterns based on straight lines make the flares look bigger by comparison, and so they can look quite good. The only trouble might be that wearing tweed, people will ask you about your pony, and in plaid people may ask you about the Bay City Rollers. I'm not sure what response paisley flares will provoke...

"Bootcut" trousers (such as in the picture, left) have minimal positive flareage. They are not straight trousers, but widen just enough to cover boots easily. In fact, most contemporary trousers are of this design, probably because they are much more flattering to the legs than shaped trousers of the past. Another great design feature of bootcuts is their length: they tend to be long enough, even for tall people (a common problem).

"Bell bottom" trousers like these (right) have a bigger type of flare - they are so named for obvious reasons. BEWARE: Trousers in high-street shops are often marketed as bell-bottoms, when in fact they are little more than bootcut; always try on a pair of flares before you buy them, or you could be in for an unpleasant surprise!

X-flares are the biggest type of flares, even beyond bell-bottoms. They possess an immensely high degree of flareage. Astrophysicists use the same term to refer to only those solar flares for which the peak X-ray (1-8 Å) flux as measured by a GOES satellite is greater than 10^-4 Wm^-2. It isn't important here what that exactly means, but there have been only 23 of these events between November 1997 and June 2001, during the peak solar activity, so they are really quite rare. X-flare trousers are similarly rare. Only one pair has so far been observed that falls into this category, F14, although there are sporadic reports of others. For flarophiles, this is the ultimate in flareage. They stand out on the street as a sign of true flare. Basically, this is what you're aiming for.

As a rough guide, we can relate the different sizes of flares to C-values:

• C < 0.00 : Karottenhosen
• C = 0.00 : straight
• 0.00 < C < 0.10 : bootleg
• 0.10 ≤ C < 0.25 : flared
• 0.25 ≤ C < 0.50 : bell-bottom
• C ≥ 0.50 : X-flare

Why not use the calculator on our statistics page to compare your flares with ours and with each other (no maths required!) or there's a graphical guide in the JC Penney 1980 catalogue, which someone has helpfully scanned in.