Saggin’ – Super Baggy Pants
Dec 11th, 2006 by What's Gotta Go
I have hesitated to write about this one for some time, because in writing it I am essentially admitting I’m an old fart. I can’t stand the “fashion” trend of the super baggy pants. I am usually pretty accepting of passing fashions, and I don’t mind kids expressing their independence in odd ways for the most part…expect when I think it looks just plain stupid. Size 50 waist on a buck-25 kid just doesn’t work for me.
How many times have you seen kids that essentially have to hold their pants up as they walk around, or at least cinch them up every minute. Pockets in the back so big they go past their knees and bunched up at their shoes because they are 10 inches too long. Again, every person can have their own sense of style, but this one is just beyond me. Why rush what is going to be a problem later in life when you have that gut and your pants can’t stay up. Old guys where rainbow suspenders and and just deal with it, but apparently they should let them fall a bit and they can just say they are “with it” and you just don’t understand.
I am heartened whenever I see an article link this one where some stupid criminal is caught literally with his pants down – his fashion statement catching up with him “in the end.” (Bad pun intended). You’ve all seen this at least on COPS or in a an article that appears somewhere about twice a year, where the baggy pants end up around the ankles, giving the police leg up in their pursuit. I am really bad, I know.
So cat’s out of the bag, I’m officially getting old. I still listen to modern music though, so I can’t be that stodgy.
I agree totally on this one. I am SOOOO tempted to run up and tug on them so they fall completely down! I did do that to my best friend’s son a couple of years ago…He was 16 at the time and horrified! He won’t wear his pants like that around me now…history might repeat itself.
I totally have to agree on this subject. I hate the baggy pant look. I would rather see the tight fitting jeans than the crap that is worn these days. How on earth do you walk in those type pants? And then to have to look at their underwear too is totally disgusting. Am I old also?? Probably – but style is style and the baggy look is no style to me whatsoever…..
Jeremy welcome to Middle Age! LOL! If you think about it every generation has some type of “fashion statement” that the “adults” view as offensive, ridiculous or impractical. Be in the 60’s Love beads and long hair hippies, the 70’s wide bell bottoms, mini skirts and hip huggers, the 80’s Madonna bras worn on the outside, the 90’s with the all black Goths and now in this era the baggy pants….I’m sure all thru history the youth wore something they thought was original and did it mostly to tick off their parents! I bet Marie Antoinette’s bee-hive hair was to bother her mother!
I was watching Oprah when she had an ex-con youth motivational speaker who helped kids in the inner city of Chicago…he shared the real meaning behind the low boxer shorts showing pants…he told this to the youth groups he met with and said it changed their view…the low pants is from the prison population…the men there that are wearing their pants low are saying they are available for a hook up with the other men…you get my drift. He said as soon as he shared this info the young men in the audience pulled up their pants.
As a sub-teacher I always made the boys in my class pull up their pants or they were not welcome in my classroom. They all learned to have them on their waist before they saw me coming…
Totally Agree!!! There is fashion and then there is stupidity. The kids look like idiots, not fashionable at all! The same can be said for the girls that wear the low ride pants that if they sit or bend over then you see WAY too much! It is disgusting not fashionable. Argh, why can’t kids wear clothes that flatter them and not make them look like slobs! When they get older then they will be SEARCHING for the flattering clothes! I know I look back at my pictures and wonder why I didn’t appreciate what I had when I had it! Part of getting older I suppose! Oy!
We have a *giggle* about this on several of the costuming or historical re-enactment groups I am involved in.
Think about how perplexed the archeologists of that time will be when they try to explain the whys or hows for this particular trend.
One possible example was posted that offered a comedic routine explaining it, including duct tape to body parts or the boxers.
People offer their hand-me-downs for my sons all the time, needless to say, any of the ones that would qualify for this type of trend go right out to the Goodwill donation box!
I have nothing against baggy pants as in the 20,s all the way to the 50,s all men wore baggy pants as that is prevelent in those old movies of the good old days.
But here is the catch, Back then everyone wore a belt or suspenders to hold the pants at the natural waist line so that under pants and butts did not show and that is were the problem is today as most kids who wear that attire delight in showing off underwear and certain parts of thier anatomy, Plus the ones who buy them extra long as to use them as shoes and the colors today are just so drab and scummy looking and a lot of teens refuse to have them washed, One kid told me his mom only washes his baggys 4 times a year!!!!!
And yes this is a prison fashion and these kids look up to those jail birds as role models, So in closing its more than just a fashion thing as there are some bad underlying things more involved than just fashion.
You know what I have to agree with a lot of the opinions mention. Fashion has been and still seems to create an aww, in the minds of us as adults. I work with a group of inner city kids and I see on a daily basis numerous of fashion in and out of my class. So I took it upon my self to one day show them just how they look by wearing the so called urban fashion style that they wear. If only you could have heard the statements of “Teach please pull your pants up” and the jesters of “why do you have your hat on like that” you would have enjoyed a long day of laughter. I showed them just how they appear to others when they dress in the so called “In Style” format. My class in 90% of African American Children, so when Kramer had his break down on the Comedy show I chose to have a discussion on the subject to see how my children felt. After I listen to their feelings I notice that none of them like the word “Nigger” or “Nigga” at all, they felt it carried the same meaning and it was not what they say to be “Cool”. This feeling was the same for my children that are not African American, they too do not like the use of either word or its intent and wishes they were never created. So I apposed them with a test. I wrote on the Board the word “SAGGIN” and I told them to spell the word backwards which just so happens to spell the word “NIGGAS” I told them if you hate this word so much I want to encourage you all to pull your pants up and not contribute to the word at all and to show respect for your self and for others that you will not in any form represent the words “NIGGA” or “NIGGER” ever again. Not only did it have an effect in my class but I see and hear the buzz in the community and I have to say I do see a change. Now that’s what I call trying to kill two birds with one stone.
iLLA – great background on your class experience. Takes some real guts to teach in the way you described and accomplish it without backlash. Sounds like you did a great job with it!
Hi there,
I normally support kid’s fashion, but at the local watering hole, this guy walked in. Dressed in a LONG T-shirt down to his knees, sidways white truckers hat, and his pants looked like they were for a 3 year old!! I mean, DOWN BELOW HIS KNEES, and not even real baggy! We were all looking at him, wanting to pull down his pants, when one notorious friend walked up with a small firecracker and lit the fuse, dropping it down the goon’s shirt. LOL, the guy left fast, and all but naked :) I can’t see this trend lasting long.
You know I bet most people in here who commented on this whole thing are over the age of 25 at the least…
And many of the comments were sobering about the fashion trends of the 60s until the present..
If it was not for the craftsmanship of the constitution I would not have taken any of those wig wearing morons seriously.
I mean to wear a wig on your head when your a grown man is just plain ******. When I reflect back upon the forefathers of America who wore wigs I find that quite unacceptable.
Of course I believe that a person should not show their underpants and their privates that is quite disgusting; however the baggy fashion is not something knew, it’s been in since the time of KRIS KROSS the hip hop artist who popularized it. That was in 1993 and its now 2007. Not goin to last long? 14 going on 15 years is not too bad.
Alot of men and women wear it becuase they do no want to be the *** symbols that Abercrombie and Fitch, Tommy Hillfinger and Gap have made your children out to be.
Another point while we are on it. The socieites that wear baggy or loose fitting cloth have less homosexuals than those that wear tight jeans…
We could get into a whole other discussion about ties and how ridiculous they really look, and the so called “power look” and the history of jeans and communism…It would spin your heads yo!…
WORD! Peace out my brethern!
[...] At least this guy had his pants cinched up so he didn’t get caught with them around his ankles while trying to flee. He’s one up on all those baggy pants hoodlums caught because of their fashion choice. [...]
if you ask me, there’s either an intentional or subconsious intention to make other people look at their asses – they want some attention down there, I don’t thinks it’s necessarily from other guys, it could be from girls- but they want that part of their anatomies paid attention to- whatelse could it mean? fashion is one thing but when it’s taken to the point where your *** is literally hanging out for everyone to see it’s different, I can see hanging a bit below the shorts on the hip, but below the *** completely? no, those boys are looking for some action there whether they’re even conciously aware of it- look at it this way, could you imagine a woman or girl walking down the street with her body exposed like that that being really modest at heart with no sexual drives going on – women that dress overtly, extremely **** and show alot of thier bodies are either trying attract people for sexual encounters or are simply selling it, it’s part of commerce – no “fashion” has ever been so blantantly sexual without it being in a sexual context, like s and m black leather ********** sadomasochism gear – it’s highly erotic because it’s sexual – nobody wears it just because it a style, it’s a style that’s part of a lifestyle – that’s why certain ways of dressing while perfectly legal and legimately fashionable are just inappropriate in certain places – could you imagine a lady lawyer walking into court in a miniskirt showing her cleavage?
those boys with their asses hanging out want something period – maybe from girls but they want it
I want to add something else – alot of “straight” guys have fascinations with their butts, love showing them off, the internet is full of “straight” college boys mooning in public- sometimes in a line together all with big grins on their faces – I think this way of dressing is like a form of legally mooning people – they get a charge out of it – of giving other people be it men or women a “charge”
this isn’t at all about a fashion its about seduction
Style is style and to me this style of baggy pants, sagging, and underpants and anatomy showing is not style at all, its all a thing about kids wanting to be urban ganstas, We do know the blacks are the ones who came out with this so called fashion, Ie the rappers who are into drugs, killing and free *** and most of them do have criminal records, its seen everyday on MTV and to denie this fact absurd, The rap lyrics support this all the time.
See its not just fashion it supports other things besides just baggy clothes, The baggy saggy pants are just the catalest for some bad things.
I am a product of the 70,s -80,s and yes we wore some wierd clothes but i never seen anyone with a butt or a butt crack showing or underpants exposed for the world to see, The world has fogotten a simple word called decent looking and kids today wonder why the police are always keeping a close eye on them as the cops do know what those type of clothes represent, YUP the criminal aspect, So if they dont like the police looking at them with that attuide all they have to do is dress normal.
Its no secret if you dress like a urban gansta your going to act like one!
[...] far the most popular topic searched for is Baggy Pants or Saggin’. That article rivals and often surpasses the traffic even to the home page! When I wrote that [...]
saggin is well cool. all the girlz at my skool fink itz fit and i always do it cos if u sag like 4-5 inches like me, u get well baggy and show ur calvin klein boxers and all the girlz luv it 2
I believe that if kids wanna wear baggy jeans go for it. This is a free country. You guys that say “You shouldnt wear baggy clothes” and all that, I really have no symphony for you. Complain all you want because your words really wont stop kids from wearing what they like. I’m not a baggy clothes person but I live with it. While kids are getting kidnapped you sit and whine about kids wearing baggy jeans.
Ew ew ew.
Girls do NOT like when guys are wearing there pants like that.
Ugh, there is to much things to say about how gross it is, when guys wear there pants like this. ew ew ew.
Thomas Edison, you are a tool. There are so many false statements in your post, I hardly know where to begin. First, all men gentlemen wore powdered wigs back in the 1700’s it was a sign of sophistication, not a prison fashion like saggin. Secondly, what is your source for the dumb statement that societies that wear sagging pants have less homosexuals than those who wear normal pants? (notice I used the word normal instead of your word “tight”) That statement is not only false, but completely Idiotic. Third, Kriss Kross was a group, moron, and they popularized wearing their clothes BACKWARDS, not saggin. Fourth, the history of jeans and communism is just that those who could afford jeans were well off, PERIOD. You sir, are a DOUCHEBAG.
Reply to SOMEPERSON’S remark.
Wearing baggy clothing doesn’t have a darn thing to do with wearing it on there asses and some even on there knees.
Since it’s not only boys are doing this, even the girls are joining in on this.
I’m sure if it was your parents you would have opposed to it, or would not be wanted to be seen in public with them.
A person is treated by there looks.
If you went to a doctor(Medic) and saw him wearing his pants low and having the ganstah talk, would visit him for any medical care?
Which self respectable person do you see walking with there pants on there buts.
Don’t contribute to a daily degrading world.
Let’s help and educate the younger generation, since we on the outside having a clean record should be road models not Thugs in jail, unless they can contribute positively to the youth of today.
See paragraph 3 for details on the positive contribution of an ex convict.
I totally agree with you, i am 13 and I hate baggy pants, YOUR NOT OLD. I hate EVERYONE who wears baggy clothing. Whenever I buy pants I make sure that the pants are at LEAST one size tighter than they should be so I can be sure they wont be baggy. I believe baggy clothing is soon coming to an end…..