Capris are officially back, and not as a nostalgic joke. Google search interest in the style has jumped significantly this year, and the 2026 version looks nothing like the cropped, tight-through-the-leg capris from the early 2000s. Designers including Carolina Herrera, Versace, Ralph Lauren, and Isabel Marant all showed reworked versions for spring and summer, leaning into a more relaxed, culotte-inspired shape, wide-leg and cropped just below the knee, alongside cargo and denim variations. The revival is being driven largely by a younger crowd discovering the silhouette through the broader Y2K wave currently running through fashion.
My honest take: I love this trend, genuinely, on almost everyone except myself.
The modern capri, the wider, more relaxed version rather than the tight original, is a genuinely flattering shape on a lot of body types, and I think that’s part of why it’s resonating so widely right now rather than staying a niche throwback. It’s also a smart in-between option for weather that isn’t quite full-length-pants weather but doesn’t feel like a shorts day either. On the right person, especially someone with longer legs or a frame where that below-the-knee cropped line creates a clean, elongating break, it looks effortlessly chic in a way that’s hard to replicate with either full-length trousers or shorts.
On me, it just doesn’t work the same way, and I’ve tried enough versions at this point to know it’s not a fit-and-try-another-brand problem. The below-the-knee crop point tends to hit my leg in exactly the spot that visually shortens rather than elongates, which is the opposite of what the silhouette is supposed to do. It’s a genuinely specific proportion issue, less about body size and more about where that particular hem lands relative to leg length and where the knee itself sits, and it’s just not a match for how I’m built.
I don’t think that’s a flaw in the trend, I think it’s a reminder that not every well-designed silhouette works universally, and capris might be the most proportion-dependent piece on this entire list. When I see the culotte-inspired wide-leg version on someone with the right leg length, it genuinely looks like one of the best trends of the year. On me, it just reads as a length I didn’t quite commit to.
I’d never buy a pair for myself at this point, but I will absolutely keep admiring them on everyone else. If you’ve got the leg length for that below-the-knee break, this is your trend, wear it constantly. The rest of us can appreciate it from the sidelines.