Let’s talk about it: luxury fashion’s obsession with sagging – Essence

The sag hit the fashion scene in the 80s and 90s, when hip hop became an outlet for artists and listeners alike. Impressionable young people naturally wanted to embody their idols by adorning themselves in baggy clothing with the pants hanging below the waist. In 2021, Balenciaga released a $1,200 pair of sweatpants with a boxer detail at the waist to mimic the sag. This sparked outrage online after a TikTok video of the pants was shown in-store.

“I think my initial observations[about the sagging pants trend]were in celebrity culture in particular. White celebrities and even some models, like Hailey Bieber — that whole group that the media promotes over and over again,” said Julian Randall, a writer and PhD candidate in black consumer studies. “I was forced to think about it more critically when Balenciaga sold those sagging sweatpants. The whole discourse around that was the first time I was confronted with that in ways I hadn’t seen before.”

The brand is known for its often controversial designs that are made to provoke a reaction or draw attention. Non-black celebrities, such as pop star Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, and Troye Sivan, are often seen wearing loose clothing on other fronts. They have adopted styles similar to fashion traditionally associated with African Americans, with oversized t-shirts, shorts, or oversized jeans that fall well below the waist. Eilish’s approach to fashion can be seen as part of “Generation Z” fashion, as this younger generation has a variety of aesthetics that they abide by. What’s fascinating about her style, however, is that her music doesn’t reflect anything like hip hop, but quite the opposite. This raises questions about how black or African-American style is perceived. Often, white consumers dabble in cultural appropriation, as they see blackness as the epitome of cool, but discard it for a “cleaner” style when it no longer serves them.

The sagging pants trend has taken a new turn, with the illusion of wearing multiple pairs of pants or underwear linked together now considered fashionable. Despite the Balenciaga controversy, brands such as Miu Miu, Hed Mayner and All-In have also adopted this trend. However, this has raised some concerns. To explore the growing interest in sagging pants, we delve into its history and interview experts about this once significant phenomenon that has become a microtrend.

According to the historian and author of Threads releasedAccording to Tanisha C. Ford, the sagging trend seems to have started elusively. Sagging was often referred to as an allusion to homosexuality in prison, but in Ford’s view it is a gray area. On NPR, she stated, “I don’t think we can definitively say that sagging started in prisons.” Another specification of the trend comes from author and fashion curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Darnell-Jamal Lisby, who suggests that it may have started in prison for other reasons. Baggy uniforms and beltless clothing were given to prisoners to thwart suicide attempts. Prisoners were given baggy uniforms without belts to prevent suicide attempts, which some people believe is reminiscent of the practices of enslavers, who did the same thing to prevent slaves from escaping. This has led government officials to take action.

The most concerning thing about sagging being seen as a trend on a broader scale outside of Blackness is that historically, it only negatively affected Black participants. In 2007, Ocala, Florida, councilwoman Mary Sue Rich was so upset by the sagging of Black youth that she got a law passed to fine youth who wore their pants too low with $500 or up to six months in jail, according to NPR. This law was repealed in 2020 after 13 years in a predominantly Black or African-American county. This is not surprising, as the Black Lives Matter movement was on the rise in 2020 with the goal of making real change to the quality of life and safety of Black people in the United States. Other states had made similar bans in Wildwood, New Jersey, and Pikeville, Tennessee. “I never supported it, not even as a resident,” said Vice Mayor Chris Davis, who sponsored the repeal in Florida and told the The Miami Herald“I felt like it disproportionately affected a certain segment of our population, which is young African-American men.” Even President Barack Obama made a statement on MTV’s Sway in 2008, saying, “Brothers, pull up your pants.” However, he said making laws regarding this trend was a “waste of time.”

The respectability politics of sagging and the prospect of dressing like a thug or dressing dangerously plagued the black community for decades. However, penalizing young black men solely for their clothing was far more dangerous. Black consumer analyst and writer Julian Randall weighed in on the high fashion space’s embrace of sagging as problematic: “Historically,[brands have studied black consumers]to a certain extent. For example, stylists for hip hop artists couldn’t turn to European luxury fashion brands. They didn’t want to work with them because of these stereotypes about what rap and hip hop are. Eventually, once white youth started adopting hip hop styles, big brands started paying attention. They tap into aspects of black culture to keep it fresh or culturally relevant. They know that hip hop is the most influential phenomenon globally.”

Lisby, a fashion curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, explained that the tendency to appropriate sagging has to do with the fact that black history has yet to be reconciled, much like other oppressed cultures. That’s why the perception of disrespect and cosplay of blackness is so quickly adopted and discarded by their white counterparts.

“It all comes down to how the world views blackness, and can we as a global society come to terms with the history of black people around the world? And because we haven’t, and we continue to fail to do so. It all comes down to this idea of ​​policing blackness and really continually denigrating it, but then somehow moving forward through history without reconciling that past, which we get a consequence of, and part of that is disrespecting or disregarding black culture.”