It looks like some of the most criticized trends of fall—jeggings and harem pants—are sticking around this spring for another go. Browsing through new merchandise on some of our favorite retailers, we noticed that these styles were widely available, and, in some cases, more prevalent than before. As for harem pants, we assume that Alexander Wang‘s football collection had something to do with the drop-crotch staying in style, and becoming transposed into sweatpants. Over at Shopbop, you’ll find many of these offerings, which appear to be marketed less as a harem cut, and more as an athletic-chic style. Oak‘s merchandise, however, glorifies the baggy pant as a high-fashion item. Perhaps the most surprising is the availability of jeggings—denim leggings—at Saks. We counted over 20 pairs, and from some surprising makers. While there were styles from trend-happy labels we’d expect like C&C, Juicy Couture, and Joe’s Jeans, we also came across offerings from some more sophisticated brands like Rag & Bone and Alice and Olivia. We have to admit, when these stretchy pants haven’t gone acid-wash crazy, and just have a nice dark color and simple lines ... they’re not half bad. Dare we say that we might actually consider getting in on the jeggings trend if the wares were more classy?

What do you think of the return of these trends this spring?

As the hours of 2009 slip away, end-of-year lists are clogging up the internet, and everyone’s become nostalgic about the end of another decade. The year has seen some crazy trends, especially the obsession with leggings in all forms. Though we’ve poked fun at mashing two words together to create a new term for crazy clothes, it seems the good people at the Oxford English Dictionary aren’t joking around. Where once the term jeggings was a quick and easy slang term for skin tight jeans, it’s now totally official. With the new year, comes a new dictionary, and along with “Tweetup,” “unfriend,” and “zombie banking,” going forward, “jeggings” will be considered an official dictionary word. What out-there words will 2010 bring? [Guardian]

Combination clothes are nothing new. After all, jeggings have officially become a thing, we disclosed our love for bleggings, and shooties are all over department stores. Don’t know what those are? Here’s a quick refresher. Jeggings are jean leggings, bleggings are black leather leggings, and shooties are shoe booties, but that’s only the beginning. We’ve already predicted the future of combination clothes, but it seems we missed an option ... sheggings.

We thought jeggings were the last frontier in the leggings craze, not to mention the downward turn in a persistent fash “moment” that simply refuses to end. That is, until, we spotted these bleggings (black leather leggings) on Ashlee SImpson in NYC today (she was guesting on Alexa Chung‘s show). Turns out, the trend we tried to turn a blind eye to awhile back has indeed caught on with celebs and their stylists alike (apparently Rachel Zoe just pronounced black leather leggings a must-have for fall—d’oh!) and judging from the crazy amount of them we’ve spotted on ShopStyle, well, bleggings are like, all official and s**t. And as silly as they are, why is that we’re kind of craving them? Maybe it’s the rock ‘n’ roll vibe they give off, or the Angelina-back-in-her-edgier-Billy-Bob-days appeal. No matter, the fact is, here’s one item where it seems ridic to splurge: I mean, it’s not like we’ll be wearing these into our old age. And due to all that leather, much like thigh-high boots, they’re stupid expensive, too. Yet, we miraculously dug up this pair of fake-but-high-quality leather Armani Exchange which are a steal at an online exclusive price of $48. Must be kismet.

It’s no longer enough to wear a pair of shoes, a shirt, or a skirt. No, fashion has gotten so much more complicated. Now there are articles with names like shooties (pictured) and jeggings, because combination clothes are so hot right now. What began with the skort back in the ‘60s has become a full-on pandemic this year. When will we let a pair of pants be a pair of pants? Not anytime soon. After the jump, five combination clothing items we see on the horizon.

Whitney Port is the bravest girl we know. She is the first person we’ve seen try the jean-legging combo. While she’s thin enough that they don’t look bad, we wonder if they’re cutting off her circulation. [LA, 5/19/09]