Take a stroll along Professors Row and see what people are wearing. You might see Doc Martens, you’ll probably see oversized sweaters, but you’ll almost certainly see long, cuffed wide-leg pants. Gone are the days when pants were meant to cling to your calves. When it comes to jeans, the Jumbos are going jumbo.
While elephant-sized pants were considered laughable in the preceding decades, the 2020s view them as stylish. Some hypothesize an adverse reaction to slim-fitting “millennial” skinny jeans. And, as each generation does, Gen Z has stuck out their tongue at the favorites of their predecessors. Sophomore Morgan Rozansky watched this generational shift happen online.
“The memeification of skinny jeans that happened because we hate millennials so much definitely contributed to why people wear baggy jeans,” Rozansky said. “But also, Y2K fashion, early 2000’s and late 90’s fashion [is] coming back around. … Those were really popular in that time: low rise jeans, flare jeans, baggy pants.”
But wider pants may also have a utilitarian function. Rozansky considers baggier pants to be much more comfortable and less restrictive than skin-tight jeans, while still offering an outlet to feel confident and attractive.
“Specifically for women, a lot of times it’s more comfortable to have one tight piece of clothing and one loose piece of clothing. Like how before it was a baggy shirt and tight shorts in the VSCO-girl era,” she said. “It’s shifted to a tighter top and baggy pants, so you can still feel comfortable in your femininity, and that’s how a lot of people express that while also feeling comfortable mobility-wise.”
This trend’s growth might be self-fulfilling. We all want to fit in: The more students you see wearing wide-leg jeans, the more you’ll want to buy your own.
“The tightest pants I see [around campus] are like straight-leg jeans. I feel like I never see traditional skinny jeans,” she said. “Having a smaller campus tends to breed that. … If you notice that other people around you are wearing something, I feel like you’re more apt to try to adapt to that style, whereas at a bigger school, there’s more of a sense of anonymity.”
Gen Z has also embraced thrifting, aiming to cut costs and reject fast fashion’s environmental degradation. SMFA junior Teddy Hwang credits the big pants trend in Boston to the popularity among college students of purchasing second-hand clothes.
“I thrift a lot, and I find that it’s easier to buy way [too] big pants and wear a belt,” Hwang said. “That way I don’t have to worry about it being too small. You can never have pants too big, but you can always have pants that are too small.”
Of course, our fashion choices come down to what we think looks good. Whether there’s a generational rejection of millennial culture or a growing acceptance of thrifting, every young person must individually choose what they wear. Senior Owen Thomas kept his reasoning for big pants brief: “I thought they looked cooler.”
