Hang up your hipsters
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]They have been a mainstay of our wardrobe for 10 years. But the ubiquitous trousers that transcended fashion are finally over. Jess Cartner-Morley bids them a fond farewell[/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Friday March 25, 2005
The Guardian
[/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]It was the muffin top that finally did it. That, and the whale tail. These twin crimes of modern fashion - the squeeze of squidgy flesh that rolls over the top of a low waistband like overrisen dough, and the T-shape of a G-string that surges into view when the wearer of low-rise jeans sits down - have finally succeeded in killing off that staple of modern wardrobes, the hipster trouser[/font]
It had to happen. All good things come to an end, after all, and in fashion a good innings means anything more than six months. Most fashion trends come and go leaving barely a ripple on the sand - smocking, for instance, is terribly in this summer and will be all over the high street like a rash in July, but will vanish without trace by autumn. But the hipster trouser transcended fashion. A mainstay of our wardrobes for 10 years, the shape became - like black opaque tights, or Touche Eclat, or high heels - part of our arsenal. There is a generation of women now in their early 20s who have never worn a pair of trousers that reach their waist.
The hipster shape, in its modern form, came to power due to two labels: Gucci and Joseph. They changed our whole image of what trousers were about. Tom Ford's Gucci velvet hipsters were sexy, glamorous and rock'n'roll; Joseph's cotton twill versions were urbane and chic. Between them, they seemed to have every wardrobe eventuality covered, making trousers - which had hitherto been smart but rather sensible - suddenly look sexy. Observer journalist Polly Vernon, a devoted aficionado of the hipster trouser, dates her look from this time: "It was when I got my first pair of Joseph hipster tuxedo trousers in the mid 1990s that I realised the potential of the lower waist to make your bum look smaller. And then a few years later, I tried on a pair of Paul and Joe hipster jeans, and they were the single most flattering thing I'd ever worn. I was hooked."
Hipsters are supremely bottom-flattering. The bottom-fixation of recent pop culture - from Kylie to J-Lo - can largely be traced back to the sudden peachiness of the hipster-clad bottom. But the ability of a hipster waistband to trim inches from your bottom is not the only appeal of the look. There is, as Vernon puts it, "something intrinsically louche about trousers that are low-slung, and all that that implies". Worn long over a pair of spike-heeled boots, hipsters epitomised backstage glamour. Their associations with free-and-easy, Almost Famous sexiness made them a crucial part of the look of a new generation of pop princesses: at the height of her success, Britney Spears was often photographed in jeans with a zip just one-inch long. The look was taken to a new extreme by Christina Aguilera, who squeezed any remaining sexual subtlety from the hipster look by favouring corset lacing instead of a zip, a look that made the naval-baring of Justin Hawkins of The Darkness seem positively demure.
"When a look goes too mainstream, people start wearing it badly. And then the really fashionable people run a mile," explains Louise Chunn, editor of In Style magazine. And sure enough, once B-list celebrities boasting muffin tops and whale tails started making regular appearances on "how not to wear it" pages, hipsters disappeared from the international catwalks almost overnight. Now that Bootcut Barbie is baring her midriff in Woollies, the Gucci girls have their waistbands snugly fastened once more. Not everyone accepts, however, that the hipster has been tarnished by bad association. Vernon argues that the fashion world has turned against the look "because fashion will always battle against something if it's flattering and easy to wear. To the fashion purists, that's almost cheating". Whether the hipster imploded because it looked too bad or too good, everyone agrees that - in a high-fashion sense, at least - it is over. Balenciaga's high-waisted sailor trousers, and Chloe's cinch-waisted 1970s strides have had press and buyers swooning; Marc Jacobs' roll-up trousers, worn belted just below the waist and with high-heeled Mary Janes, are tipped by Harvey Nichols as this summer's essential. Suddenly, a new roll-call of trouser-wearing icons is being conjured up - Katharine Hepburn, Wallis Simpson, Marlene Dietrich. "There's a photo of Meg Mathews wearing the high-waisted Chloe trousers in an upcoming issue of In Style," says Chunn, "and she looks fantastic. But it's not an easy look to wear yet, because we're not used to seeing it." Some would counsel sticking with what you know suits you; against this, I would only propose the example of Liz Hurley, a woman whose every outfit makes it clear, each time she steps outside her front door in a pair of hipster white jeans, how much she wishes it was still early 1985 - an early-hipster, pre-Divine Brown, pre-Steve Bing world. And sometimes, ladies, you just gotta move with the times, even if they do make your bum look big.
Are Dean and Dan Caton , Andrew Mackenzie and the rest taking notice ?
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]They have been a mainstay of our wardrobe for 10 years. But the ubiquitous trousers that transcended fashion are finally over. Jess Cartner-Morley bids them a fond farewell[/font]
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Friday March 25, 2005
The Guardian
[/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]It was the muffin top that finally did it. That, and the whale tail. These twin crimes of modern fashion - the squeeze of squidgy flesh that rolls over the top of a low waistband like overrisen dough, and the T-shape of a G-string that surges into view when the wearer of low-rise jeans sits down - have finally succeeded in killing off that staple of modern wardrobes, the hipster trouser[/font]
It had to happen. All good things come to an end, after all, and in fashion a good innings means anything more than six months. Most fashion trends come and go leaving barely a ripple on the sand - smocking, for instance, is terribly in this summer and will be all over the high street like a rash in July, but will vanish without trace by autumn. But the hipster trouser transcended fashion. A mainstay of our wardrobes for 10 years, the shape became - like black opaque tights, or Touche Eclat, or high heels - part of our arsenal. There is a generation of women now in their early 20s who have never worn a pair of trousers that reach their waist.
The hipster shape, in its modern form, came to power due to two labels: Gucci and Joseph. They changed our whole image of what trousers were about. Tom Ford's Gucci velvet hipsters were sexy, glamorous and rock'n'roll; Joseph's cotton twill versions were urbane and chic. Between them, they seemed to have every wardrobe eventuality covered, making trousers - which had hitherto been smart but rather sensible - suddenly look sexy. Observer journalist Polly Vernon, a devoted aficionado of the hipster trouser, dates her look from this time: "It was when I got my first pair of Joseph hipster tuxedo trousers in the mid 1990s that I realised the potential of the lower waist to make your bum look smaller. And then a few years later, I tried on a pair of Paul and Joe hipster jeans, and they were the single most flattering thing I'd ever worn. I was hooked."
Hipsters are supremely bottom-flattering. The bottom-fixation of recent pop culture - from Kylie to J-Lo - can largely be traced back to the sudden peachiness of the hipster-clad bottom. But the ability of a hipster waistband to trim inches from your bottom is not the only appeal of the look. There is, as Vernon puts it, "something intrinsically louche about trousers that are low-slung, and all that that implies". Worn long over a pair of spike-heeled boots, hipsters epitomised backstage glamour. Their associations with free-and-easy, Almost Famous sexiness made them a crucial part of the look of a new generation of pop princesses: at the height of her success, Britney Spears was often photographed in jeans with a zip just one-inch long. The look was taken to a new extreme by Christina Aguilera, who squeezed any remaining sexual subtlety from the hipster look by favouring corset lacing instead of a zip, a look that made the naval-baring of Justin Hawkins of The Darkness seem positively demure.
"When a look goes too mainstream, people start wearing it badly. And then the really fashionable people run a mile," explains Louise Chunn, editor of In Style magazine. And sure enough, once B-list celebrities boasting muffin tops and whale tails started making regular appearances on "how not to wear it" pages, hipsters disappeared from the international catwalks almost overnight. Now that Bootcut Barbie is baring her midriff in Woollies, the Gucci girls have their waistbands snugly fastened once more. Not everyone accepts, however, that the hipster has been tarnished by bad association. Vernon argues that the fashion world has turned against the look "because fashion will always battle against something if it's flattering and easy to wear. To the fashion purists, that's almost cheating". Whether the hipster imploded because it looked too bad or too good, everyone agrees that - in a high-fashion sense, at least - it is over. Balenciaga's high-waisted sailor trousers, and Chloe's cinch-waisted 1970s strides have had press and buyers swooning; Marc Jacobs' roll-up trousers, worn belted just below the waist and with high-heeled Mary Janes, are tipped by Harvey Nichols as this summer's essential. Suddenly, a new roll-call of trouser-wearing icons is being conjured up - Katharine Hepburn, Wallis Simpson, Marlene Dietrich. "There's a photo of Meg Mathews wearing the high-waisted Chloe trousers in an upcoming issue of In Style," says Chunn, "and she looks fantastic. But it's not an easy look to wear yet, because we're not used to seeing it." Some would counsel sticking with what you know suits you; against this, I would only propose the example of Liz Hurley, a woman whose every outfit makes it clear, each time she steps outside her front door in a pair of hipster white jeans, how much she wishes it was still early 1985 - an early-hipster, pre-Divine Brown, pre-Steve Bing world. And sometimes, ladies, you just gotta move with the times, even if they do make your bum look big.
Are Dean and Dan Caton , Andrew Mackenzie and the rest taking notice ?
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