The devolution of our society through fashion in just two pictures.

[LoveMyHats2]

Joe Besser as Stinky! He was also one of the Three Stooges. He replaced Shemp when the latter died in 1955.

Yes you are correct on that one.....Joe actually looks "sharper" in that duck outfit, to me, then a kid wearing his "stuff" and half mast.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

No, and I see your point ... but the zoot suits, though not heinie-exposing, were worn to similarly exaggerated extremes. The shoulders were outlandishly wide; the jackets were like corsets around the waist and ludicrously long; the trousers went practically up to the wearer's chest; the trouser legs had thighs which billowed like balloons, and cuffs so tapered and narrow that they sometimes had zippers for the wearer to be able to get his feet through them.


After World War II began, some people began to react very negatively to the zoot suit, claiming that it was a sign of gang criminality as well as being ugly (and sexually suggestive, of all things).

I see you point, and again, who else has the details as accurate?

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I see what you mean but will suggest people sporting this look don't know or care about the supposed origins of the trend.
This simply demonstrates another look that has "gone mainstream".

When I was a kid our parents bought us brand new, dark blue, stiff jeans. We wore them and broke them in. Today everyone buys jeans that look like they've had 'em for years.
Other examples are cowboy hats, black leather jackets, tattoos, mean wearing earrings, etc.
It's tricky trying to determine what someone is implying by what they wear.

The former is a stretch and the latter pretty awful. Stereotypes about hip-hop are weak when we consider how mainstream the hip-hop genre has become and consider the major consumers of the music. Do we need further proof than we've got Snoop Dogg going on the Ellen show and mom and dads in suburbia listening to "gangsta rap" in pimped out rides while driving the kids to extracurricular activities.

Very true. Geez, I still hunt for those really thick stiff blue jeans, those last for years and are much better (my opinion) then the thin ones that are so popular.

I myself do not understand what is the deal with the "rip torn" look unless you want to "connect" with Rip Torn, the movie actor...(who sadly is three sheets to the wind lately)....

 

[LoveMyHats2]

All this information about Zoot Suits, makes me stop to think about what it was like back in the day they were being worn!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Youth fashions are often ugly, because the whole idea is to antagonize and outrage authority figures, etc. etc. etc. and that's the whole purpose of zoot suits, low-slung pants, and all the rest of it. Makes perfect sense.

But sociology aside, from a purely aesthetic point of view, they still make the wearer look like a circus clown. Not much dignity in that.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Youth fashions are often ugly, because the whole idea is to antagonize and outrage authority figures, etc. etc. etc. and that's the whole purpose of zoot suits, low-slung pants, and all the rest of it. Makes perfect sense.

But sociology aside, from a purely aesthetic point of view, they still make the wearer look like a circus clown. Not much dignity in that.

Thank you. You are stating it as I wanted to. That old saying a rose by any other name, is still a rose....and then we have "bozo" and his bagging sagging "pants on the ground".....

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I remember back in the '70s there was a Saturday morning kids show called Ghost Busters (not to be confused with the movie) that starred Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker of F-Troop fame and Larry Storch wore a zoot suit in the show.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I don't recall the show, but nice find! lol!

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Both of them, I should hope: the world is far too overpopulated as it is, the fewer people of any type who breed, the better!

I second that emotion. (Hmm, I seem to remember agreeing with you on this in another thread )

Hi Edward, looked it up

Greyhound Skirt

Very short skirt, that is, as in greyhound racing it is only an inch away from the hair.

She left for the bar that night with her greyhound skirt on, sure to get some much needed attention from the guys.

Love the description, wish I'd have thought of it myself, but then I don't get out much.

later

I have three greyhounds; I wonder if they'd be amused by the expression?!

True but you know, I almost am half tempted to head to the frozen food section of a grocery store, find a nice long frozen fish, just to have to "slide" into the backside of the pants when I see anyone with their "pants on the ground".....lol!

:rofl: And I always get the itch to sneak right up behind them, and either hoik 'em down or give 'em a good ole wedgie...and run like the blazes!

It is no coincidence that a few comments about the guy wearing the pants around his ankles assumes he would have a hard time running from the cops.
Why would he need to run from cops? Speaking in practicalities a guy wearing a fedora would have an equally hard time. He'd need one hand to hold his hat on his head..

Two differences: one, your fedora you can lose and not get too many sideways glances. Two, in a biomechanical sense, if your hat falls off your head, you can still keep on running!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I second that emotion. (Hmm, I seem to remember agreeing with you on this in another thread )



I have three greyhounds; I wonder if they'd be amused by the expression?!



:rofl: And I always get the itch to sneak right up behind them, and either hoik 'em down or give 'em a good ole wedgie...and run like the blazes!



Two differences: one, your fedora you can lose and not get too many sideways glances. Two, in a biomechanical sense, if your hat falls off your head, you can still keep on running!

Very true....if the person was wearing the pants on the ground deal, they could try running but it may just be a "whoops" and face planted on the ground!

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Lookin' like a fool with your face on the ground...

 

[C-dot]

Youth fashions are often ugly, because the whole idea is to antagonize and outrage authority figures, etc. etc. etc. and that's the whole purpose of zoot suits, low-slung pants, and all the rest of it. Makes perfect sense.

Many of the kids in the more outrageous fashions have attitudes to match!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Many of the kids in the more outrageous fashions have attitudes to match!

I have noticed that myself, makes a person want to "pinch their cheeks" does it not?

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Has any of these doofus's who wear their pants like that ever offered any explanation as to why that look is a fad? I mean granted, that photo is a bit extreme, but the guys whose pant waist is halfway down their bum and the crotch is hanging between their knees.....why? Seriously, what was the point of that trend? Usually there is some kind of vague reasoning behind why certain looks become trendy, but I've never heard anything for this one, not even a stupid reason.

And the guys with the overlong shorts that come down past their knees who wear the overlong t-shirts....my husband calls them toddlers. Because they are dressed as toddlers. Do a side by side comparison of a male toddler and a 20-something male dressed in the same outfit. He says it's because boys these days never grow up, they're stuck in a perpetual state of toddler-hood mentally, so why wouldn't their clothing reflect it? :lol:

After giving it much thought, I really think it's a result of marketing efforts by Corporate America, Wall Street, et al, and it goes hand in hand with the plague we know as "The Dumbing Down of America". Honestly, stupid people, or the uneducated, are easy to control.
The money-hungry create an image, a "style", and entice a certain demographic to give them their disposable incomes in order to achieve said "style" and level of contrived "coolness" by buying the required apparel and accessories.
It's diabolical really, when one considers that such apparel as the ubiquitous big shorts and T-shirt uniform you mention, is absolutely the cheapest and easiest apparel there is to manufacture. No tailoring or real design involved. It's like 10 or 12 pieces of cheap polyester and cotton blend fabric, (more or less) stitched together in a matter of minutes in a concentration camp for the "politically incorrect" in communist China, all for a couple of dollars at most. Then they might add some numbers and a name, and it's instantly worth 50 times what it cost to produce it. Talk about profit margins! :eeek:

 

[TidiousTed]

I found this on Facebook and had to share.

In all honesty there is a clear difference in age here as well. The dolt with his trousers on his knees is a teenager and the sharpy by the car is around thirty. I'm not suggesting that he wore saggy pants as a young boy, but he might have worn something that made the establishment raise an eyebrow. Let's face it, young people like too

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

In all honesty there is a clear difference in age here as well. The dolt with his trousers on his knees is a teenager and the sharpy by the car is around thirty. I'm not suggesting that he wore saggy pants as a young boy, but he might have worn something that made the establishment raise an eyebrow. Let's face it, young people like too

I was wondering that too. Surely they wore something "outrageous" in the '20s, '30s, maybe most eras that rebelled against what their parent's generation approved of?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Twenties college boys wore ridiculous "Oxford Bag" pants, which trickled down to high schoolers by the end of the decade. This style is epitomized for you here by comic-strip favorite Harold Teen ---

As you can see, Harold is a bit of a goof. But at least he's not feeling the breeze between the tail of his shirt and the top of his pants.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Agreed. The prison explanation gets a lot of press but I am sure if someone dug around enough they'd find the origins are likely closer to the short-lived 80s due Kriss Kross.
Not only did they droop their pants but wore 'em backwards too.

(Not short enough )

And yet they were still able to jump... jump around

Well, they may have been able to jump, jump around, but I can't imagine the kerfuffle when they needed to use the urinal! :eeek:

Twenties college boys wore ridiculous "Oxford Bag" pants, which trickled down to high schoolers by the end of the decade. This style is epitomized for you here by comic-strip favorite Harold Teen ---

As you can see, Harold is a bit of a goof. But at least he's not feeling the breeze between the tail of his shirt and the top of his pants.

Bell-bottoms!

 

[TidiousTed]

I remember those two. Even more short lived than that sort of phenomena usually are

 

[Feraud]

I was wondering that too. Surely they wore something "outrageous" in the '20s, '30s, maybe most eras that rebelled against what their parent's generation approved of?

Most young people do..then grow out of it. The only thing I find worse than a young kid scuttling about like a crab trying to keep his pants perched on his pelvis is a grown man doing it. It's quite silly.