The other day, while watching a 1991 movie featuring young people, I made a head-shaking realization.
The young men in the film looked a little strange to me.
Why? Because they were wearing pants and jeans that fit properly and were pulled all the way up over their behinds.
Egad, I thought. I, a relative oldster in the game, have become used to sagging ... young guys deliberately wearing too-large pants that droop downward, revealing their oft-colorful underwear.
Popular among the hip-hop set, sagging -- also known as saggin' -- became popular in the 1990s, according to online sources. It made a comeback in the 2010s with skinnier pants (thanks, Justin Bieber!) ... a thumbing of the nose at "General" Larry Platt, whose "Pants on the Ground" protest song made waves in 2010 when he hit the American Idol auditions with it.
As a fashion observer/columnist, I've waited patiently for this trend to go quietly into the night. But like other aspects of men's fashion, sagging has been slow to depart. There are now middle-aged men carrying on the trend, as pointed out in a lament at TheGrio.com titled "Why won't the 'sagging' fad fade away?"
True, in our current political climate, sagging pants seem like a mere pimple in what has become a raging acne outbreak. But the controversy surrounding the unsightly practice rages on and the move to outlaw sagging pants soldiers on.
Tom Weathersby, a Republican in the Mississippi House of Representatives, is the latest solon to want to ban sagging pants. The look is said to have its roots in the glorification of beltless attire among prison inmates. Weathersby isn't the first to want to impose such a ban -- some communities have done so -- but he's the first I've heard of who wants to impose not only fines, but counseling for those found guilty of sagging.
Introduced last month, "Weathersby's bill ... would make it 'unlawful for any person to wear pants, shorts or clothing bottoms that exposes underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner," according to a story posted Jan. 27 at Huffingtonpost.com.
If Weathersby gets his way, the penalty for a first offense of the noncriminal citation would be a warning and, for juveniles, notification of their parents or guardians. After that, fines begin at $20 and run up to $100 for a sixth offense. That sixth offense would also include "psychological and social counseling by the Department of Human Services and the Department of Mental Health."
I picture such counseling including the mandatory watching of movies and documentaries featuring gentlemanly fashions through the ages. Well, they might want to skip the fig leaf, men in tights and Spartan soldiers in ancient Speedos eras -- and stories of "When I was your age, I walked miles in the snow to go to school and my pants sure kept my buns warm."
Some might argue that insane fashion trends among the youthful are subject to simply give way to other trends seen as unattractive (i.e., saggin' with no underwear showing, heaven forbid). After all, the peekaboo thong undies women were sporting with their low-rise pants a while back have given way to the current women's fashion trend now being protested: yoga pants. A couple of years ago, a Montana lawmaker rose up against them and other tight-fitting clothing.
Last fall, a Barrington, R.I., guy wrote to his local newspaper denouncing the pants and their wearers, a letter he later claimed was a joke.
"Not since the miniskirt has there been something worn by so many women who should never have it on in the first place," Alan Sorrentino wrote in a letter to the Barrington Times. "Yoga pants can be adorable on children and young women who have the benefit of nature's blessing of youth. However, on mature, adult women there is something bizarre and disturbing about the appearance they make in public."
In response, women do what women have been doing a lot lately. They march. A Yoga Pants Parade was held in Barrington.
Which makes me wonder whether I should have griped here about sagging. I shudder to think of a Saggin' Pants Parade.
Perhaps Weathersby and others of us who have been rolling our eyes at the saggers should be more subtle. Perhaps we should do like those experts who recommend parents suggest alternatives to their children instead of saying "no." Perhaps we should campaign for a new fashion trend: very, very long shirts and tops. These can go not only over men's saggin' pants, but over women's yoga pants and leggings, too.
Then, to borrow the name of those popular "as seen on TV" sleeved blankets, we'll all be ... snuggin'.
Hey, pull up your email server!
hwilliams@arkansasonline.com
Style on 02/12/2017