Today, harem pants are back on runways, spotlighted by the Italian brand Redemption, New York’s Joseph Altuzarra and Paris-based Isabel Marant in their autumn-winter collections.

Celebrities such as model Hailey Baldwin, Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross and Aladdin’s Mena Massoud have been spotted rocking the look. Singers Céline Dion and Jessie J also wear the flamboyant, billowing trousers, which have been embraced by high-street labels such as Decjuba. For brands such as Camilla and Czarina, they never went out of fashion.

“Harem pants are the designer version of the cheap, hippy version that so many people were wearing before,” says Jacinta Richmond, director of the Sunshine Coast Fashion Festival in Queensland, Australia.

Richmond describes the look as “sexy yet sleek”. Adding silks, brocades, velvet and leather brings a high-end feel, she says; instead of resembling a backpacker hippy, a wearer looks like a queen – even a sheikh’s wife.

“I personally love harem pants,” she says, habitually clad in her favourite silk black ones of which she owns two pairs. “I love the comfort factor, but egotistically I also love that not everyone can wear them. Mine are my go-to for flights, and as I am already travelling with them, I simply need to add statement jewellery and heels at my destination, and I am cocktail-party-ready,” she says.

She adds she has rarely seen a pair that works with trainers, the exception being MC Hammer and his “hi-tops”: sporty shoes that rise over the ankle. “But who else could possibly pull that off?” she says.

In her view, harem pants are sexiest on men who wear them properly – with a well-cut blazer or the perfect biker jacket. They also flatter a simple, semi-fitted T-shirt or, on an older gentleman, a big linen shirt that is neither too long nor too short.

Otherwise, depending on how the wearer pulls it off, harem pants are great with spaghetti strap tops, boob tubes, fitted singlets or tank tops, suit jackets, massive cardigans, Birkenstock sandals or flat sandals, heels, and boots, Richmond says.

Whether the pants look classic or catastrophic depends on the individual, she adds. Someone might look like they spent US$2,000 on pair; another person wearing the same pair might look like they grabbed it from someone at a Goa full moon party.

“When trying them on, you have to know whether you are Aladdin or, alternatively, if you look so good you can pose in front of others and smirk ‘you can’t touch this’,” she says, invoking the MC Hammer hit.

“It’s not for everyone, so saying ‘look for this cut with that top’ isn’t the best advice. Try them all. Try different combinations, but if it isn’t a trend for you, no matter how comfortable, expensive or in fashion they are, just don’t do it.”

Sydney-based yoga teacher Mel Armstrong-Jones says the pants are therapeutic.

“They are coming back as Lycra is so tight and people are wanting freedom to move and breathe,” says Armstrong-Jones, who is also a keynote speaker, marriage celebrant and counsellor for post-traumatic stress disorder. “Some look like nappy pants, but still people are wanting comfort over fashion.”

She wears them when she needs to relax before a speech. She also wears them before bed, because they are comfortable and good for “snuggle-up time”.

Like Richmond, she says harem pants are also great for travel. She wore them throughout a five-year-long trip in the 1990s that took her to Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and beyond.

“The pants work well for travel as they are free and easy and let your legs and underwear breathe. MC Hammer wore them, I reckon, because he could move easily in them like a skirt rather than tight trousers. As a PTSD yoga keynote speaker, I suggest that when you want to relax and relieve anxiety, eat good food, get good rest, put on loose-fitting harem-type clothes and chill out,” she says.

“If that does not work, after a bath listen to your favourite music and put on your harem pants for a good boogie.”