Does anyone know if the flowy gaucho pants are popular in Spain/Madrid? I'm thinking of bringing them this summer but I don't want to stick out totally like an American! I looked on the Zara website but I didn't see too much of them. Just curious!

I wore them all over the place last month - they are not super popular but nobody will stare at you - there are some similar styles but they arent as popular as they are at home...

Since this topic is about pants...do anyone if it would be strange, or rather very "american" to wear regular jeans.

I'd say that MOST Spaniards wear regular jeans, LEVI'S, and the like. Even in the heat of August you'll see many people wearing them on the street. However, if you wear them with the latest NIKE tennis shoes and a NY Yankees baseball hat (or any baseball cap) you WILL look more "very American". Although, little by little, Spaniard youth are unfortunately adopting these United Statesen customs with the "droopy drawers", exposed boxer shorts, torn/tattered bell-bottom jeans dragging below the soles of their shoes, and the like.

We still don't know about those "Gaucho Pants" though. Not really sure what these are anyway.

Saludos, MadridMan

Gauchos have really hit the American fashion trend in a big way. They are sort of like capri pants (pantalon pirata) but each leg is very wide and flowy.

Okay. FINALLY I know what Gaucho Pants are - see below:



I wonder how they got their name, though.

Saludos, MadridMan

Everything returns in the world of fashion...first Palazzo Pants and now Gauchos! I wore gaucho pants in the early 70's, when actresses like Joan Collins made them popular!

They got their name form the men who made them popular, the Gauchos. These loose-fitting pants are known as bombaches, and you can read all about this in the popular novel of the inteprid Gaucho, Martin Fierro, a favorite of Miguel de Unamuno's, and in Don Segunda Sombra by Ricardo Guiraldes.

This site tells you all about its history, but it is in Spanish:

They originated from the pants worn by the Turkish troops in the Crimean war.

http://www.folkloredelnorte.com.ar/bombacha.htm
El origen de este "pantalón", se remontaría a la Guerra de Crimea, donde las tropas aliadas usaron uniformes similares al de los turcos, adoptando sus amplísimos pantalones ("El gaucho" - F. Assunçao - 1963).

Debido a la gran producción de estos raros pantalones, y al concluir inesperado de la contienda bélica, el sobrante fue remitido al Plata, donde los soldados los usaron; pero el sobrante seguía y se incluyó en las existencias de las pulperías, donde el paisanaje la adoptó. Esto rondaba la época de 1855-56.

Existe otra versión que dice que el General Fructuoso Rivera le pide a su esposa Bernardina, vía postal, que le envíe bombachas: "mandame unos calsones de merino mordore von vachas o como generalmente cedice alo chino, el Gen. medina me ametido en esto y por esta rrazon te dio este petarde, no te olvides de mandarme las vatas", esto ocurría en 1843 en Uruguay... o sea que la prenda de vestir tiene un origen en nuestras tierras un tanto dilatado, pero su ascendencia turca es prácticamente innegable. Fue también Etchegaray, el vasco fabricante de alpargatas uno de los que ayudó a la difusión masiva de la bombacha o pantalón turco en nuestros campos.