COBALT PAGES
/ FASHION n CULTURE Askew *

WHY ARE YOUR PANTS SO LOW?
From Sagging and Beyond: Section 1




When A$AP Rocky attended the 2025 Met Gala in a custom AWGE look, it would be easy to miss all of the references layered into his outfit. From the studded gun-shaped handle on the umbrella, to the ski jacket inspired coat, the sharpest statement was in the branded boxers (that interestingly did not make an appearance on the carpet).

The branded boxers???? That small gesture was a nod to sagging, placing hip-hop’s most contentious style into the highest echelon of fashion.


Characterized by the deliberate exposure of underwear through baggy, low-slung pants, sagging emerged as a uniform within the hip-hop scene in the 1990s before going global, seen on the sidewalk and high-fashion runways alike. Loved and loathed, it’s a lot more than rebellion. It is a style that embodied a nuanced interplay of individual agency, social commentary, and collective expression.

So, where did it come from?

Hip-hop culture emerges in the mid 1970s in the South Bronx area of New York, amidst growing economic inequality, poverty, unemployment, drug use, gang violence, and controversial housing projects. DJ Kool Herc is credited as a foundational figure in the birth of hip-hop music, by remixing elements from blending elements from Jamaican club culture, disco, and funk. Early hip-hop fosters a sense of community, offering an alternative to gang violence, while rap allows marginalized Black and Puerto Rican teenagers to narrate their experiences and envision new possibilities.

Early rap features braggadocio (ie. bragging), reflecting the spirit of conspicuous consumption that marked the early 80s. Such themes of material desire and class ambition were layered with social critique, blending a so-called “ghetto realism” with fantasy as a way to critically engage with the dominant culture of the time.




Hip-hop quickly becomes a youth culture encompassing music, language, attitude, and fashion. Clothing functions as a material marker of subcultural identity, signaling membership, status, and authenticity. Early styles draw from contemporary trends — tight dark blue jeans, leather jackets, and later, name-brand athletic wear — especially among b-boys, or breakdancers. Styles are “fresh” and clean, with pristine white sneakers and creased jeans. Preppy influences— hiking boots, ski jackets, khaki pants, as well as labels like Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger— are all folded into hip-hop’s vocabulary. A sly wink at elite aspiration, and a playful critique of class.

Jewelry, gold-capped teeth, and flashy accessories exemplify “bling,” emphasizing visual impact while asserting status, identity, and power. Every choice broadcasts identity, status, and taste. These choices emphasize the authority of the wearer by constructing a highly stylized masculine body. Clothing becomes a powerful language within hip-hop culture. It represents a deliberate act of self-fashioning for Black and Brown men, using personal style as a means of asserting agency. This impulse recalls the tradition of Black dandyism, where style has long been wielded and a means of resistance and refinement. Style being used as a way rewriting one’s place in a society structured to deny it.



By the 1990s, clothing grows baggier. Their larger-than-life silhouette adds physical bulk to the wearer, emphasizing their physical presence. Jeans become baggier too. Often worn without belts, pants sag low. They affect the movement of the wearers, forcing them to adopt a slower gait. Swagger is born in the walk, the stance, the posture. It becomes a silent assertion of presence and ownership over the streets.

Despite not becoming widespread until its embedding within hip-hop culture, sagging has been traced back to the late 1970s, where it was adopted by young Black and Latino men who looked at ex-prisoners returning home wearing drawers, nylon boxers, and tops.


One of the most prominent spectacles of sagging can be found in the performances of 2Pac in the early 1990s. Sagging, once a practical consequence of oversized denim, becomes a declaration— I define my space, I define my body. Sagging reflects a rejection of "nerdy" high-waisted styles, tying it to a countercultural stance against mainstream expectations and standards of middle-class respectability. 

Even designer jeans are worn lower, revealing layers of brander underwear and basketball shorts. Luxury is appropriated, flaunted, and remade. Calvin Klein advertisements feature displays of sagging as a way of marketing their underwear, helping to solidify it as a widespread fashion statement.



Hip-hop fashion becomes a sign of cultural interaction, as its styles transcend racial and geographic boundaries, gaining popularity among suburban and white youth. By the mid-1990s, exaggerated baggy and saggy styles symbolized membership in a burgeoning community but also faced criticism from older generations attempting to dismiss the growing cultural movement that was hip-hop. 

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