Zara's 'death pants' are trending because people keep tripping on them

Zara's 'death pants' are trending because people keep tripping on them

Some on social media claim they've been left bruised, scraped and with broken bones

Wide-legged pants? Trendy. Falling on your face while wearing said pants? Trending.

Technically, the Zara pants at the centre of a new internet phenomenon are called "flowy wide leg pants," which cost $45.90, are made of polyester, and boast an elastic waistband and front pockets.

But on social media, they're better known as "lethal trousers," or "deadly trousers" or the "Zara death pants" because people keep tripping on them and hurting themselves.

"These Zara trousers are hazardous!" influencer Jessica Pearce wrote in the description of a July 1 TikTok video that showed footage in which she faceplants in a driveway and yells "Oh, f--k off!"

"POV: a victim of Zara trousers," wrote another influencer, Camila Ribera Roca, in a video viewed 1.2 million times where she trips on the sidewalk and then shows herself cleaning up her bloody elbow.

"These Zara pants need to come with a warning because now I have a fractured knee," wrote Holly Gilmer in a TikTok video that starts with her limping down the sidewalk in her flowy pants, then leaving the hospital in a wheelchair.

There are thousands of similar videos posted across various social media platforms using the hashtags "Zara death trousers," "dangerous trousers" and "deadly Zara pants." Some of the people in the videos show themselves tripping, and many claim they've been left bruised, scraped and have even broken bones.

The issue is that the floor-skimming, extra wide fabric seems to wrap around people's feet when they're walking, according to the U.K.'s Fashion Times. On social media, one shopper claimed she wore the pants for five minutes "and now have no toenail."

"Be safe out there," wrote a creator named Morgana in a video with 2.7 million views where she shows the injuries to her knee and elbow, and damage to her phone.

CBC News has reached out to Zara and not yet heard back. The company does not appear to have made a public statement.

But some fashion experts have noted that, regardless of brand, any pants designed with loose fabric around the feet will be hazardous. And not just for tripping, but also for getting caught on bicycle chains, machinery and escalators.

Yet this style of pant is also a hot commodity, and Zara is far from the only company selling them. Vogue recently declared wide-leg trousers "one of those rare wardrobe staples that truly work for almost everyone, in almost every setting," adding that they're "roomy and forgiving yet still polished and sleek."

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"They are the trouser shape of summer ’26 simply because the persisting heat wave means they’re the most elegant, cooling way of dressing the bottom half the body for women who can’t wear skirts or mini-skirts for work," personal brand stylist Clare Chambers said to the U.K.'s Metro last week.

According to Nine in Australia, multiple people in their newsroom have had accidents while wearing baggy pants, including wide-legged jeans and baggy trackpants.

Alison Perry, a U.K. podcaster and author, posted a video in May that "wide leg trousers should come with a health warning," and noted how many of her followers had commented with their own "Wide Leg Trouser Trauma."

A short history of pant injuries

While the Zara pants are trending right now, this isn't the first time pants have done us dirty.

Last year, singer and actor Suki Waterhouse wrote on social media that she "wore pants so tight … it caused a hernia." She included a photo in which she appears to be wearing tight leather pants, and another in a hospital bed.

In 2015, a woman in Australia was hospitalized with severe weakness in both ankles as a result of "squatting in skinny jeans," according to a medical bulletin published in the journal Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

She'd been helping a family member move, noticed her pants felt exceedingly tight throughout the day, then noticed "bilateral foot drop and foot numbness" on her walk home, which caused her to trip and fall.

"She spent several hours lying on the ground before she was found," the bulletin said, adding that medical professionals had to cut the jeans off of her.

And according to a 2023 review posted to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, pants zippers are the most common cause of penile trauma in adults, with about 2,000 cases reported every year.

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Natalie Stechyson has been a writer and editor at CBC News since 2021. She covers stories on social trends, families, gender, human interest, as well as general news. She's worked as a journalist since 2009, with stints at the Globe and Mail and Postmedia News, among others. Before joining CBC News, she was the parents editor at HuffPost Canada, where she won a silver Canadian Online Publishing Award for her work on pregnancy loss. You can reach her at natalie.stechyson@cbc.ca.