Ever since shants made their way onto the fashion radar, the Fashion Police have rested easy in the certain knowledge that shants were very much a “catwalk” thing, i.e. designers might trot them out every so often, but they weren’t something you’d ever see on the high street.

Until now.

Yes, today our confidence in the “actual stores wouldn’t sell them” nature of shants was shaken to the core by the appearance of Boutique’s organza trousers on the Topshop website.

Make no mistake, people, these are shants by any other name, and now that they’re being sold for £35 per pair in a store frequented by a large percentage of the female population, the Fashion Police are raising the alert level to Defcon 1.

Topshop advise wearing these “with a blazer and heels”. We’d like to also add, “and underwear” to that. Please don’t forget the underwear…