Fashion house in backlash over 'racist' $1,190 sweatpants
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
High end fashion label Balenciaga is facing a backlash, after critics said that a $1,190 pair of sweatpants it sells rips off black culture.
The Trompe L'Oeil pants feature a built-in pair of boxer shorts peeking out from the waistband, mimicking a style popularised by hip hop musicians.
A TikTok post which called the pants racist was viewed 1.6m times and black culture experts have raised concerns.
Balenciaga said it often combined wardrobe pieces into a single garment.
Examples include "jeans layered over tracksuit pants [and] button-up shirts layered over t-shirts", said chief marketing officer Ludivine Pont.
"These Trompe L'Oeil trousers were an extension of that vision," she said.
The trend of wearing "sagging" pants, which allow your boxer shorts to be exposed, was popularised by skaters and hip hop artists in the 1990s.
However, during the 2000s some US states passed laws banning the practice, which critics say unfairly discriminated against black people.
Some have since been repealed, such as an order in Shreveport, Louisiana, which turned local law enforcement into "fashion police who used saggy pants as a pretext to target, search, and imprison black people", according to the American Civil Liberties Union .
TikTok user Mr200m saw Balenciaga's sweatpants on sale in London and posted a video in which someone is heard saying: "This feels very racist... They have woven the boxers inside the trousers."
It has had 243,000 likes, with one user quipping: "They've gentrified sagging."
Some social media users said the pants amounted to double standards, but others said the design was not racist. One pointed out that boxers sown into pants was "a really common thing in the 90s".
However, Marquita Gammage, an associate professor of Africana Studies at California State University, told CNN the pants had "cultural appropriation written all over them."
"Sagging attire has been consequential for African Americans; yet companies like Balenciaga seek to capitalise off of blacks and black cultural styles while failing to challenge systematic racism that criminalises blacks and black clothing trends."
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You know you’re living in an alternate reality when a company markets a pair of sweatpants for $1,190 - and the outrage is over cultural appropriation, not the fact that there are people out there who can afford to spend $1,190 on an ugly pair of sweatpants.
I have never really gotten into the concept of cultural appropriation. Ideas and art are welcome to everyone , not just the people that first thought of them.
I agree
lol, who would pay that much for a pair of sweat pants. Let alone, who thinks this is cultural appropriation? If my grandson doesn't wear a belt and his pants sag is that "cultural appropriation" or is he just being an idiot?
I guess it would depend on what crowd he happened to be in. Some would blame him for cultural appropriation; others would just laugh and ask him it he couldn't afford a belt.
I remember my mother making a keen observation once. A kid was walking around with baggy jeans and a belt. However, when he walked he had to hold his pants up, thereby using his belt as a handle rather than a belt. I thought that was a pretty funny commentary on the functionality of saggy pants.
I really don't get "cultural appropriation". On one hand we have people saying we are a melting pot of cultures and in the next many of those same people are saying that any appreciation of any part of a culture other than their own (whatever the fuck that means in modern America) is the worst thing anyone can do. I like the look of of African men's shirts and jackets. Someone please tell me why can't I, a white middle aged man, wear one without being hammered?
I pretty much lump those screaming cultural appropriation in the same pot as those screaming about losing American culture over inclusivity. Both seem divisive to me. By the way I'm not talking about miss-use of culture or someone trying to fool others by pretending to be from another culture.
The funny part is that the social justice warriors can’t even agree on whose culture is being appropriated.
The trend of wearing "sagging" pants, which allow your boxer shorts to be exposed, was popularised by skaters and hip hop artists in the 1990s.
These are two unrelated demographics, and neither is directed at a race. I used to skate when I was younger, and as much as I hated the super saggy pants look it was ubiquitous in skating because you need loose pants. Some sag is fine but the hip hop trend took it to a ridiculous extreme. How is it functional to have your waistband below your butt cheeks?! But I digress … 1,190 fucking dollars???
The sagging pants started in prison yards and then popularized by hip hop culture as many of them came out of prisons for gang violence.
You beat me to it.
I wonder when you would get around to that $1,190...lol...I don't even want to pay 20 bucks for a pair of sweat pants
Gotta agree with you on that.
I was thinking about this while watching Iron Chef the other day, and was reminded of the gal that was forced into an apology for serving Asian cuisine. The challenger was originally from France, studied under a master chef in Japan, and his forte was, wait for it, Japanese cuisine. The master chef he trained under clearly had no issue in teaching him the art of Japanese cuisine. When did we start confusing "celebration" with "appropriation?"
As for the pants...the way they are fitted on the mannequin, I'm not sure that is sagging. Looks more like pulling the boxers up to the tits to me. Maybe that's the gripe.
Was that the episode where the chef used mac nuts in the dish?
Not that I remember, it was an episode from the original Iron Chef. I think I know the episode you are referring to, which it seems ran some time in the past few days, or week. Iron Chef America episode with Garces...can't remember who the challenger was. Garces made the buttery macadamia nut sauce for the fish?
One of the most famous cases of "cultural appropriation" was Elvis accused of stealing a "black" song "Hound Dog" which was originally recorded by a black singer named Big Mama Thornton. Problem is the song was written by two white guys, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
I guess no one is too concerned about appropriating skater culture, though. Seems unfair.
Rips it off? Right. Like black people were making money with this stylistic bit of “culture.”
And Culture? Think about that for a second. Culture. Jazz is black culture worth trying to copy. Political courage for civil rights is something to take pride in. Retaining African traditions in spite of slavery is inspiring. The bonds of black families, faith, and community are worth emulating.
But not anymore, I guess.
The fashion culture that you’re proud of today - that you want to defend; that you want exclusivity over - is letting your pants hang below your ass? Hey, you can have it! Trust me when I say that no one with any actual self respect is trying to appropriate that look.
Of all the things in this world to try to own, these morons want to own “I can’t pull my pants up.” Go you!
The reality is that loose and saggy pants are sometimes actually functional, as in the case of skateboarding. That can’t be identified as cultural appropriation if it’s functional. Hardcore punks also wear their clothes baggy, and clearly are not trying to appropriate a completely unrelated hip hop culture. I think the appropriation may come into play with the extreme version where you pull your boxes up high and pull your waistband below your ass (I still don’t get how they stay there - seems like it’s defying gravity). There really is no logical reason to do that other than trying to emulate a style. In that sense I suppose these idiotic sweatpants are guilty of cultural appropriation, but, as you say - they can have that shit. I just can’t get over the price. If you’re that hell bent on appearing like something you clearly aren’t, save the $1,100 and invest in some rims for your six four impala.
I say it's about time men had nice underware.
If I am going to wear a pair of Supreme boxer briefs, I kinda want the band to show a little. Haha