Fashion Emergency: How to FixThe Downside of Low-Rise Pants

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | Friday, July 25, 2003 | SUEIN L. HWANG

[presidio9]

Los Angeles wardrobe stylist Jeanne Yang calls in a tailor to put in darts at the hip. Advertising executive Paula Mangin of San Francisco is choosy about the chairs she sits in and, when she stoops, she takes care to bend at the knees. Web publicist Karen Bard, also of San Francisco, leans on her boyfriend.

[goldstategop]

Expose as much flesh as you can get away with to attract the boys. Its been around for quite awhile and not just with low rise jeans either.

[Catspaw]

I just keep thinking of Dan Ackroyd.....

[Paul Atreides]

Why is it women feel that they have to go along with whatever trend comes down the runway? Some guys go for the XXXXX-baggy jeans look, but they are in the minority (at least where I live).

[finnman69]

[Paul Atreides]

This year's fashion phenomenon, T-shirt maker C&C California, is selling tank tops with 18 inches of fabric from the armhole to the bottom of the shirt, compared with just 11 inches for regular T-shirts. Says co-owner Claire Stansfield: "We filled that gap." The startup company has a waiting list for its cover-up tank top.

I'm no genius, but isn't this defeating the whole purpose? Why not just buy normal jeans?

[presidio9]

"I see you've got an old Norge there..."

[finnman69]

Now these are low.......

[mewzilla]

Some do, not all. I tried on a pair of those things just for giggles. Couldn't see what the fuss was about. But then I like my clothes loose and my skirts long. Why buy this stuff if you have to watch what you're doing every minute? Seems to me folks will remember what you accidently bared a lot longer than how good you may have looked.

[mewzilla]

Boy, have you tried finding normal jeans lately? Well, probably not for women :) It ain't easy.

[Fzob]

And while that might be just the ticket for some, it's a problem in need of a solution to women with even a modicum of modesty.

Here's a wild solution to this terrible problem, wear something that doesn't cause the problem.

"It's just a way of life now," she says. "If you want to be fashionable, you've got to practice socially responsible bending."

Two sentences that should never go together.

[Servant of the Nine]

If you aren't very careful, you end up showing too much.

You can't show too much unless you have too much.

So9

[Incorrigible]

[Paul Atreides]

I'm probably in the minority, but I don't think that those low-riders look attractive on women, no matter how hot the woman. They seem to make the butt and hips look bigger. I like the normal, but not baggy, jeans on women. They are more complimentary to the woman's figure. I also hate the big clunky shoes on women. Women don't look good in Herman Munster shoes.

[Dianna]

As any woman who has purchased them can attest, they come with one little drawback: If you aren't very careful, you end up showing too much. And while that might be just the ticket for some, it's a problem in need of a solution to women with even a modicum of modesty.

Will I be flamed if I suggest that women who are modest wouldn't buy clothes which force them to be very careful lest they be exposed?

[Paul Atreides]

I'm still trying to figure out the jeans that look as if they were dragged through a septic tank. I had acid washed jeans back in the 80s, but wearing nasty-looking jeans is not for me.

[CatoRenasci]

When I was in college and grad school in the '60s, low-rise pants (known as hiphuggers) were quite in fashion. I don't remember it as a problem, and many of the girls weren't wearing any underwear anyway. The more obscene fashion was hot pants, which combinted a very low rise with a very short short. One girlfriend of mine had a pair that were somewhere around 5-6" total height, from the hem of the shorts to the top of the 'waist'band. Not nearly as revealing as her string bikini, but rather risque for anywhere respectable.

[Timesink]

Now these are low.......

And laughably airbrushed. Where's her navel?!

[L.N. Smithee]

When I was in school, you would have been teased for days if the tag on your underwear showed. Nowadays, guys who wear baggy jeans have to practically put their lower back on a bus seat to prevent pantsing themselves, and every other young woman displays the waistband of her panties if she bends down or kneels.

Here's what's more alarming IMHO -- teen girls with tattoos on the small of their backs barely above their cracks! Those aren't there for their own enjoyment, are they?

[ffusco]

Dan Akroid, comedic genius.