Is sagging a fashion trend or flop?
Subair Mohammed
Outside of the ‘traditional’ style of wearing jeans, pants and shorts high above the waistline, without any reluctance, sagging has come to stay as a popular fashion trend among the hippie, fun loving and fashionable preteens and teens.
Sagging which referred to the manner in which trousers are worn by men as a fashion style came into prominence in the late 80s.
Although this fashion trend is hugely popular with boys, but occasionally, girls have taken a liking for the style too.
But as there are different ways of wearing sagging trousers, the most popular method is wearing the trouser way down below the waist revealing a significant portion of innerwear.
However, as common as sagging is among preteen and teenagers, can it actually be considered a fashion statement or a flop?
On this, Wande Akintobi, a Junior Secondary school student says sagging is a fashion statement.
He enthusiastically added, “I love sagging beyond words. It is a style that is made popular by the hip-hop artistes. It is mainly worn by them. And as a lover of hip-hop songs; I chose to flow with the trend. With sagging, I am free and feel accomplished fashion-wise.”
Interestingly, as Wande makes a fashion statement by sagging, same cannot be said for Felix Ebikwe who believes sagging is nothing but disrespectful.
‘Why should I dress like a prisoner or a gangster?’ he asked. He continued, “I am a free-born and a thorough bred Yoruba. Sagging is a style for prisoners. It has its origin in American prisons where prisoners were banned from wearing belts and shoe laces. This was done to prevent them from using their belts and shoe laces as weapons to attack other prisoners or commit suicide. But gradually these prisoners started wearing trousers below the waist outside the prison after completing of their jail term. It is unfortunately, however, that free-born has adopted this style as a fashion trend. I think sagging is disgraceful and disrespectful to our culture as Africans” Felix said.
While it may be true that sagging had its origin from American prison, it is also believed that the earliest form of sagging originated from the streets where homeless people living on the streets would wear old oversized trousers given to them as alms. So, with these facts on sagging, where do you belong?
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