BAGGY BRITCHES
The style setters are saying that pants are going to thin down this Fall.
That would promise, then, that we are going back to thin-as-a-rail, tight-fitted, all bone and flesh-less inside, and ready to split at any moment with the slightest bending motions. I hated those,too and I have always been thankful that I grew up in an era of "in-between-Ness" when fashion experts did other things than worry about the tightness or looseness of men's and boy's pantaloons. I did experience male living when so-called "knickers" - so-called rhyming easily "snicker" - were a strongly set fad largely due, I suppose, to Scottish game of golf which gained both fame and notoriety in that curious phase in our tonsorial history. I think of it now, but it never occurred to me at the time, that we went about as close to the style-edge as possible when we agreed to be seen in public dressed in those knee-length bloomers. They could, just as easily have convinced us we should have donned genuine Highland clan kilts together with such attachments as might seem necessary to keep everything proper and decent along the Fairway as in the Rough.
After the changes of 1929 we growing boys saved 'knickerbockers", as golf- garb came to be classified. We saved our golf-garb for Sunday and other dress-up times and returned to our favorite overalls - pronounced most of the time, as "over hauls" - with bibb, shoulder straps, and plenty of pockets. The legs of the pants were roomy enough to slip over usually bare feet. When shoes were worn, a bit tighter, of course.
If, indeed, sensible pants styles for men and boys are tor return to public display areas such as Mall parades , maybe we can hope some of the current sag-and-drag designs will fade away. Some have the back pockets nipping at the walker's heels with every step.
Some seem to be swinging on a belted suspension at about knee level. The fore and aft sway of the legs keep a rich patina on the murky surface of signatured sneakers intermittingly displayed.
Hurry, style-shifters...hurry, please.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net
6-22-06 [c386wds]
