For many of historical past, males’s trousers sat on the pure waist. And although high-rise trousers provide a flattering match, consolation, and a refined silhouette, they’ve largely pale from mainstream style. Right now, low- and mid-rise trousers dominate menswear. What precipitated the shift?
Let’s discover why.
Why Had been Excessive-Rise Trousers In style Again Then?
In the course of the Golden Age of Menswear (Nineteen Twenties–Fifties), practically all males’s trousers featured a excessive rise. They had been favored for a number of causes:
Regardless of these advantages, cultural and historic components led to their decline after World Conflict II. However why did they fall out of favor? Let’s look at the eight key causes.
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8 Causes Why Excessive Waisted Pants Went Out of Type
1. World Conflict II Cloth Shortages Made Slimmer Pants the Norm
World Conflict II introduced widespread material rationing, forcing designers to simplify clothes. Excessive-rise trousers, with their fuller cuts, used extra materials, so slimmer, lower-rise types turned the sensible selection. As soon as males adopted this new type, many by no means returned to high-rise trousers.
Nonetheless, the post-war years additionally noticed an explosion of extravagant types, together with Victory Fits—that includes double-breasted jackets, huge lapels, broad ties, additional padding, and exaggerated high-rise trousers.
Nice examples of those ultra-wide particulars may be seen in One Approach Road (1950) starring James Mason. However like most fads, this extreme look pale shortly, reinforcing the shift towards mid-rise trousers as the brand new customary.
2. Excessive-Waisted Pants Didn’t Work with Daring Shirts
Earlier than the Nineteen Thirties, exposing one’s costume shirt in public was thought-about improper—nearly corresponding to strolling round in underwear right this moment. Males coated their shirts with waistcoats, saved their jackets buttoned, and wore high-rise trousers that ensured minimal shirt publicity.
Nonetheless, as types modified and shirts turned extra colourful and patterned, males began sporting them with out jackets. Sport shirts, designed to be worn with out jackets, impressed daring new designs.
Colourful & Reasonably priced Costume shirts
With improved manufacturing after WWII, males gained entry to an array of dynamic, reasonably priced costume shirts.
Since high-rise trousers coated an excessive amount of of the shirt, they had been more and more rejected in favor of lower-rise types.
3. Health Tradition Inspired Males to Present Off Their Physique
The Fifties sparked a health craze, with icons like Charles Atlas encouraging males to sculpt their our bodies. A toned midsection turned one thing to flaunt (i.e, “six pack abs”), and lower-rise trousers complemented this by revealing extra of the torso.
With fitness center tradition booming, males wished to spotlight their physiques, and low-rise trousers turned related to a extra athletic and fashionable look. Consequently, lower-rise trousers turned the go-to selection for males looking for a sleeker, body-conscious look.
Athletic Costume Pants: Only a Development?
4. Slimmer Jackets Made Excessive-Waisted Pants Look Awkward
As athleticism influenced clothes types, jacket cuts additionally modified:
- Skinnier lapels
- Tighter cuts
- Shorter skirts with open quarters
- Raised button stances (for tall, slender look)
Excessive-rise trousers, with their larger waistlines, didn’t at all times pair properly with these sleeker jackets. The additional material on the pure waist may bulge beneath slim-cut swimsuit jackets, creating an ungainly “hammer pants” (pants with extra material on the waist, resembling MC Hammer’s iconic type) impact that disrupted the outfit’s proportional concord.
This imbalance in proportions made high-waisted trousers seem outdated and fewer suitable with evolving menswear traits.
5. Suspenders Fell Out of Type as Belts Grew to become In style
Throughout the identical interval, belts overtook suspenders as the popular trouser-retention methodology. Whereas suspenders work finest with high-rise trousers, they’re much less comfy with lower-rise types—the place they’ll dig into the shoulders and wrinkle the shirt entrance.
Belts, however, paired naturally with lower-rise trousers, reinforcing their reputation. Moreover, youthful males wished to distinguish themselves from their fathers and grandfathers’ “old style vibe”, and belts helped sign a extra fashionable, youthful look.
Why did males begin sporting belts?
6. Informal Types (Denims, Chinos, Shorts) Took Over
By the Nineteen Sixties, cultural shifts led to a basic casualization of menswear. Denims, chinos, and shorts turned on a regular basis staples, and informal trousers—initially designed for sports activities—suited to motion, align with the shift towards casual dressing.
As males turned accustomed to sporting lower-rise informal trousers, this choice prolonged to decorate trousers. Carrying high-rise trousers with no jacket may additionally create “frog legs” (legs trying disproportionately lengthy as a result of a excessive waist), an unflattering look the place the elevated waistline exaggerated leg size.
With informal style dominating, males moved away from conventional tailoring, paving the best way for manufacturers to market lower-rise trousers as the brand new customary.
14 Informal Heat Climate Types
7. Quick Style and Advertising Bolstered the Low-Rise Development
Style evolves in cycles, and producers benefited from encouraging traits that required males to purchase new wardrobes. Decrease-rise trousers turned the economical selection, utilizing much less material and requiring easier tailoring.
As these types gained traction, advertising campaigns strengthened the concept lower-rise trousers had been the way forward for menswear—encouraging males to interchange their high-waisted pants even when they had been nonetheless completely wearable.
Moreover, the widespread adoption of central heating led to a requirement for lighter-weight materials. Nonetheless, these supplies draped poorly in comparison with the heavier materials of classic high-rise trousers.
Whereas Gurkha trousers and linen slacks can work properly in a high-rise type, attaining correct drape requires extra tailoring experience—one thing quick style was not designed to accommodate.
8. Pop Tradition and Style Developments Made Excessive-Waisted Pants Uncool
The Nineteen Sixties Mod Motion intentionally moved away from the fuller silhouettes of the ‘40s and ‘50s. By the ‘70s and ‘80s, high-rise trousers had been related to old style figures and nerdy, retro people.
As illustrated in fashionable TV exhibits like Mad Males, slimmer, lower-rise fits had been in type throughout the early Nineteen Sixties. Even the Nineteen Eighties resurgence of high-rise trousers—seen in Energy Fits—was short-lived, as they had been later dismissed as yuppie garments relatively than a severe type various.
With this, the high-rise trousers had been forged as relics of the previous, whereas lower-rise type—like bell-bottoms and boot cuts—embodied the daring, forward-looking spirit of the period. The cultural upheaval of the time strengthened this divide, resulting in the final word decline of the lads’s excessive rise trousers.
How Can You Type Excessive-Waisted Pants Right now?
For these trying to incorporate high-rise trousers into their wardrobe, take into account how they’ll improve your proportions and create a timeless look. Now, I discover {that a} contrasting belt on any sort of trouser, however notably a high-rise trouser, can look very engaging as a result of it visually separates the higher half from the decrease half. However as at all times, it’s important to work with what you might have.
For instance, I’m 6’1″ or 185 centimeters tall. Nonetheless, my inseam is nearly 31 inches. Which means I’ve a protracted torso and comparatively quick legs. So for me, a high-rise pair of trousers in a full reduce that accommodates my massive bum and my massive thighs is the right answer. It will not be the case when you’ve got tremendous lengthy legs and a brief torso.
So, on that be aware, in right this moment’s outfit, I’m sporting a high-rise pair of trousers in a extra informal ensemble. It begins out with a wool bomber-style jacket from Polo Ralph Lauren. It’s in all probability from the 80s or 90s—I don’t know precisely. I obtained it classic on eBay.
The shirt is a basic Oxford fabric button-down from Mercer US. My pants are goldenrod yellow corduroys which can be high-waisted, flat-front with belt loops and a ticket pocket from Fort Belvedere. They arrive in 14 colours, and you’ll discover them in our store. It’s an attractive Italian-made corduroy that’s meant to final however is mushy on the similar time.
The belt I’m sporting with it’s a brown calf suede belt that works properly with my brown calf suede Chelsea boots. They’re from Loake, the Eighties collection. The belt is a part of a system, so you’ll be able to trade the buckles with the belts from our store.
The socks are additionally from Fort Belvedere. They’re navy and yellow socks that choose up the colours of the jacket and tie the sneakers and the pants collectively. Final however not least, I’m sporting a pinky ring in strong gold with a crest that I discovered on a current journey to Vienna.
Must you put on high-waist pants?
Are Excessive-Rise Trousers Again in Type?
Whereas they’re now not the usual in menswear, high-rise trousers have seen a resurgence amongst basic type fanatics. Their consolation, drape, and refined silhouette make them a favourite amongst those that respect timeless style.
So, the place can you purchase males’s excessive waisted trousers?
At Fort Belvedere, we now have reintroduced high-rise trousers in fashionable cuts that cater to numerous physique varieties, making certain that well-fitting trousers stay accessible. Whether or not high-rise trousers will return to mainstream style stays to be seen, however their enduring enchantment amongst sartorially inclined males suggests they gained’t disappear anytime quickly.
What do you assume? Ought to we make a video on The Rise, Fall, and Rise Once more of Excessive-Rise Trousers? Tell us within the feedback!
Steadily Requested Questions
Ought to males put on high-waisted pants?
We sincerely imagine excessive waisted pants are a wonderfully acceptable various to decrease rise ones. Actually, excessive rise pants have some distinctive advantages that low rise trousers don’t present.
What decade did males put on excessive waisted pants?
Excessive waisted pants had been at their highest stage of recognition throughout the Eighties-Nineteen Forties, and had been as soon as seen because the de facto possibility for males to decide on.
Why do outdated males put on high-waisted pants?
Greater waisted pants are sometimes related to outdated males as a result of they had been hottest in older eras, and plenty of who put on them right this moment by no means made the swap over. In reality although, anybody can put on excessive waisted pants.
