OMG I love high rise pants. Well, I love what was known as high waist pants.
I am not sure if they are technically or conceptually two different things or if they are different at all but I just love the pants that come past my belly button like in the 1930s and 60s. For this post high-rise and high waist pants are the same thing.
I hate that they are hard to find. Several people have asked me about where I get my high waist pants and my answer is always vintage shops. Thrift shops are also a good place obviously. (Note that vintage shops, consignment shops and thrift shops are not the same thing.)
Never the less, suggesting to go dig in second hand racks are rarely sufficient answers.
So why are they hard to find. Here are my four best reasons and the inverse of these reasons are what could influence the fashion industry to produce more of them (reasons 1-3).
- Not Enough People Are Checking For Them. They are not in the media or trending on instagram or tumblr. Even the “classic men” of fashion aren’t sporting them in mass. Most suited men will give you the full look of a suit but do not show that some traditional styled/fitted suits come with high-rise pants in their technical term. Click this link that details the difference in men’s pant rises by Primer Magazine
- There’s nothing sexual about them. Unfortunately many men still get dressed primarily as a way to attract a mate. High-rise pants do not add or take a way anything that would make a guy look more sexually appealing to any one. It is purely about style preference. You just have to be confident in preferring that look for no-one else but for you. It would be hard to make that kind of thinking to the average guy sufficient. Self-validation is not our strong suit.
- They’d be expensive to own and produce in fast fashion. Ready to Wear Fast fashion is what got more men into fashion. It would have to look good and fit well off the rack. That wouldn’t be the case for high waist pants. In many cases they would require tailoring off the rack. MOST older men have a gut and many men become bottom heavy after a while. You would need more fabric to accommodate a belly or a pear shaped body. The need for the amount of variation in high waist pant for it to be seen as ready to wear would call for a lot of money in production, I think. It’d be best, at least, as a made to order item. Otherwise you’d probably see only small frames in them.
- Men are just not ready. As almost everything in fashion has cyclical life span, yet there is almost nothing in pop culture that says that these are coming back to prominence. Most men conform to popular impression which leaves high-waist pants off their radar. Also even in fashion history this would call for a certain build. Socially we’ve been pushing for a lot body type inclusion. High waist pants are too niched too to become an immediate need or want if we are pressing for less stress and bullying around body shapes and what pop culture in the past has said was the norm concerning body types.
TIP TO ACHIEVE THE LOOK
I’ve learned for achieving the look of high waist pants is to buy pants 2 sizes larger. Get them tailored or down in the waist and seat and shorten the legs. The rise stays the same and boom you have high waist pants.
That what I did with both these pants I bought from one of my favorite vintage consignment shops.
