Sagging pants, intentionally wearing baggy jeans below the waistline to reveal undergarments, became a fashion trend in the rap and hip hop music scene in the 1990s. It originated in prisons where belts were prohibited. Sagging has become a sign of “street cred” and is associated with gang culture. Some schools have adopted uniforms to prevent sagging, and some localities have established sagging restrictions.
If you’ve ever seen more than a peek of underwear over a baggy pair of jeans, you’ve spotted a sag. People who intentionally let their pants drop below the waistline to reveal their undergarments, and sometimes their buttocks, are informally called saggers. People wearing low-rise jeans that only expose skin don’t qualify for the title of sagger.
Sagging pants became a form of fashion expression among the rap and hip hop music crowd as early as 1989. The first saggers may have been in prisons, where inmates are forced to go without a belt to prevent suicide attempts. Today’s prisoners are known to purposely wear baggy pants as a request for a sexual encounter.
Throughout the 1990s, rappers and other musical artists helped promote the unlikely practice of sagging to eventually become the pinnacle of hip hop fashion, especially among urban youth. It has become common to see young saggers in huge jeans cinched around their hips, the elastics of their underpants clearly visible. Eventually, skateboarders also adopted the practice of sagging, which they sometimes call sagging.
Before relaxation became popular, the practice of purposely showing underwear would have been ridiculous. Today, letting pants sag has become a sign of “street cred” that could even indicate that the wearer is a hardened criminal. Members of some street gangs have been known to wear baggy pants as a sign of their contempt for civil society and the law. But most saggers are simply making a hip hop fashion statement.
The young skateboarder crowd gives a nod of approval to the fashion of wearing baggy pants to the extreme. These baggy pants ensure that the waistband is pulled in just below the buttocks and that the crotch of the baggy pants settles at knee height. It might seem like an odd choice to wear the pants in a precarious position when engaging in a dangerous sport, but perhaps the floating creases in the material create a heightened level of challenge.
When sagging pants are worn in class, they can upset parents and school administrators. A large number of children wearing jeans that fall well below their underpants has caused some schools to adopt uniforms. Some people consider sagging pants an insult to society at large. Several localities have established sagging restrictions. Violators will get a ticket or citation if their pants sag, and some places have managed to crack down on sagging.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
