Grin and bare it: the unexpected rise of crotchless trousers
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Loading... - Lisa Pereenboom
- 04 Jul 2022
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Not content with exposing our midriffs and chests this season, fashion has found a whole new area to leave undressed: the undercarriage.
Enter this summer’s funniest trend: chaps, those crotchless over-trousers that were once the preserve of actual working cowboys – and, of course, actors playing at being cowboys.
Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner set the cultural benchmark for chaps in the 1960 western The Magnificent Seven – nothing quite like a pair of sturdy suede chaps for adding that potent swagger.
After all, if you want to symbolise a cowboy’s tough exterior, it’s chaps that costume designers turn to – see also Benedict Cumberbatch, playing the aggressive alpha male rancher Phil Burbank in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning movie The Power of the Dog.
Whip off the undertrousers, though, as high fashion has done in recent weeks, and the vibe is altogether more Village People.
This week,designer Thom Browne drew gasps and giggles at fashion week when he closed his menswear show with a raunchy cowboy character dressed in beautifully tailored but fabulously risque tweed chaps with a matching jockstrap, cowboy hat and boots.
Meanwhile, the menswear label Casablanca sent out models wearing rancher-style chaps that exposed their bikini lines and derrieres. And a couple of weeks ago, the rapper Megan Thee Stallion broke the internet by baring her bottom in chaps-style jeans while modelling the latest Mugler collection.
What could possibly explain the sudden arrival of “assless” chaps, as they’re called stateside? In part, says Lorna Hall of the trendspotting agency WGSN, “it’s about fashion’s western revival and 00s styling”. Chaps are a handy development if you feel as if you’re not quite communicating your rodeo vibes with just the double denim, suede fringing and cowboy boots.
But of course, it’s more than that. It’s about sexuality and our newfound ownership of it, says Patricia Maeda of the trends forecasting agency Fashion Snoops. “That aligns with the emotional shift post-pandemic where women want to celebrate life and their bodies.” Men too, hopefully.
Twerking, and its glorification of the humble bottom, has played its part in normalising the exposure of the nether region. Chaps have proved a fashion favourite for twerkers – among them, Doja Cat and Lizzo – given that they offer an uninterrupted, bootylicious view. Read More...
