Sheer delight - believe it or not, transparent trousers are the biggest thing in fashion, even if they do flash your smalls

Transparent trousers may not be the most practical of items, but as a way to show off lithe legs there’s nothing finer. They're everywhere for spring/summer 2016 says Rebecca Gonsalves

Loewe spring/summer 2016

We’ve become somewhat inured to seeing starlet’s underwear - although thankfully it’s less frequently down to the up-skirt paparazzi shots that plagued Britney Spears et al at the height of their fame. Rather, it's because of the seemingly invincible trend of sheer skirts on the red carpet. It’s a tricky formula to get right, and hinges on the size of the underwear on show.

Thankfully, the red carpet and real life tend to be divergent, and few of us have ever contemplated how best to wear a ball gown to go about our business, let alone one that also flashes our pants. But a new, fashion-forward take on the trend is rife this season - as sheer trousers strode down the catwalks for spring/summer 2016 bringing with them all manner of underwear dilemmas.

Marques'Almeida spring/summer 2016

As with so many things, it’s all about the spectrum - at Marques’Almeida and Gucci fabrics were semi-sheer (lace, georgette) rather than all-out transparent, meaning wearers can have a bit of fun with a brightly mismatched pair of pants. Jonathan Anderson took the idea to a further extreme - not at his London-based JW Anderson label, where gauzy black lace clung semi-sheerly to the model’s legs but at Loewe, the Spanish house at which he is creative director. Here a cling-film wrapped set mirrored the sheer audacity of his transparent plastic wide-leg trousers. He also used the synthetic material on shoes, bags and even jackets, subversive when you consider that Loewe is best known for its beautiful leather pieces.

JW Anderson spring/summer 2016

But Anderson is known for pushing boundaries, and the buttons of the fashion industry, but in his hands this almost invisible clothing was covetable - surprisingly so. For the body beautiful the appeal is understandable - if you’ve put the hours in at the gym in order to ensure you’ve got it, why not flaunt it? And of the underwear dilemma? Anderson approached it in two ways - with plain knickers on show, or by layering a long-line top above to ensure the area in question was hidden from view. And the best bit about the life plastic fantastic… its water repellant nature makes it perfect for the British summertime.