Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 12, 1994 TAG: 9405120139
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jonathan Hunley
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yeah, that's it. And why not wear them kind of loose?
It's a stressful world, no need to let your clothes make you uptight. Let 'em fall down below your waist ... one, two, three, even four inches. You baby boomers might liken it to Dan Aykroyd's look in the famous refrigerator repairman skit on ``Saturday Night Live.''
C'mon, who's gonna notice, anyway? Some nosy teen-ager from the newspaper? No way.
If you've had any of the above thoughts, The Sag may be for you.
This nosy teen-ager spotted several youths wearing sagging pants at Roanoke malls. Adults might dismiss the commotion as kid's stuff, and some people might consider the clothing drug-dealer garb. I just wanted to get to the bottom of it.
"I just like 'em relaxed," said Matt Jones, a senior at William Fleming High School who, like other saggers, buys his pants about two sizes too big.
I couldn't believe there was no big idea behind this clothing style. I mean, no one would wear these pants without some secret reason, right?
"It's a fad as opposed to a fashion," said Trish Cunningham, a costume historian at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. "It's adopted because people they like are doing it," she said of the saggers.
Didi Owens, manager of Merry-Go-Round at Valley View Mall, agreed that The Sag "started with TV," adding that the store has sold pants to saggers for about two years.
The Sag isn't restricted to a specific brand of pants or a specific race or gender, according to Michael Watson, manager of Chess King at Tanglewood Mall, though I didn't see any females sagging during interviews.
Watson said sometimes parents even buy oversize pants for their children so they can sag.
T.J. Hodges, a senior at Patrick Henry High School, and David Webb, a junior at Cave Spring High School, said they wear baggy pants when skateboarding.
"We need the room to skate," Webb said.
A grin crossed the face of the young man with the partially shaved head as he explained how his sagging pants don't always agree with his skateboard wheels: "The board gets caught up and [the skateboard hits] you in the shin," Hodges said.
Some people have almost as hard a time dealing with The Sag as they would navigating a skateboard with pants dangling four inches off their hips.
"At PH, you're considered a nobody" if you sag, said Hodges, who added that a sagger is usually the "first one to be blamed for something."
Melissa Maddox, who sells pants for County Seat at Tanglewood Mall, doesn't think much of the style either. "I don't think anybody should complain about bell-bottoms after this," she said.
Ditto for Eric Lawhorn, a senior at William Byrd High School. ``I think they're trying to make a point when there's no point to be made," he said.
Because of these bad vibes, Fleming senior O.J. Ferguson sags just occasionally. He said he thinks of himself as a "role model in the community" and only sports the sag when he dresses casually.
"I don't want people looking at me differently because" of his low-hanging pants, he said. "I don't want people to think I'm a drug dealer or somethin'."
Jennifer Ford, a senior at Northside High School, said she thinks The Sag is OK - in moderation.
"As long as it's not too sloppy, it looks good," she said.
I imagine that a complete understanding of this phenomenon can't be found until one has walked a mile in another's pants, though I probably got some strange looks myself for the tie-dyed shirt and hippie sandals I was wearing.
The bottom line is that clothing should not be used to stereotype others, because we're all wearing it. Whether your style is GQ or G-money, you should be able to wear whatever you want.
Hodges said it best: "Pants are pants - deep down inside we're all the same."
Jonathan Hunley, who will attend the College of William and Mary in the fall, is an editorial assistant at this newspaper. His occasional column will address his teen-age experiences - good, bad and everything in between.|
by CNB