Why do most RTW suits still have low rise pants?
I feel like I asked a similar question before about the current state of men’s formalwear. I just no longer like the way I look with low rise pants.
People can talk for days about the quality and nice fabrics that [brand] uses, but it doesn’t mean anything when the cut is bad (imo).
It seems like in the sub-$1000 price point for new, you don’t have many options. Obviously there’s the secondhand market, but you trade a lot of time for the right deal. I feel like I could spend an entire year just looking for the right suit on eBay.
More of a rant than a question, I apologize.
6 Replies
for low rise trousers specifically i think there's a pipeline of 90s mcqueen -> celebrity women wearing low rise pants in the 2000s -> hedi slimane adopting it for menswear -> diffusion down to mass market
i do also think men's suits also shrunk in general at that time (again, trickles down from cdg, hedi, thom browne to the masses
counterintuitively i think mad men hitting the cultural zeitgeist in the early 2010s affected things
men wanted to be don draper, but didn't want to wear their father's suits, hence brands a) made suits b) in slimmer cuts to "modernize" things.
if i could theorize we haven't had the perfect storm of a figure in culture that wore tailoring to be simultaneously impactful, aspirational, and yet attainable since maybe James Bond
plus it uses less fabric
That’s true. I haven’t heard anyone really talk about suits in pop culture in a long time.
I didn’t know that. Thanks for the backstory. It is interesting how a lot of trends come from womenswear
I feel like a lot of trends in this decade are influenced less by movies/celebrities and more by social media. I.e. vintage styles trending on TikTok
But that kind of sucks when you have to buy a suit
imo trends recur somewhat as each new generation comes of age, able to spend disposable income and reacts to how their parents dressed/dressed them.
social media has caused the trend cycle to accelerate so fast that - formalwear aside - nothing has taken hold generationally
(contrast to y2k style in the 2000s, grunge and hip hop in the 90s, western or flamboyant suiting in the 70s etc)
because formalwear is more or less a "uniform" it's harder for the trends to cycle as fast so things like low rise tend to stick around for anwhile (like how high rise pants were prevalent until the 2000s)
part of it is price; I'd contend a decent RTW suit that isn't overly slim ie spier, j.crew, is closer to $1500 nowadays (j.press, brooks) at which point you may as well look at independent places for MTM
It is harder and more expensive to pattern, cut and sew higher rise trousers, they use more fabric and they are often more finnicky to fit on a person. Low to medium rise is easier for the mass market.
You're best bet is getting fit for dress trousers and jackets, and knowing some basic troublesome measurements, like your hips or shoulders if those are unusually proportioned. Then, go hit up ebay and learn the filters. You'd be blown away how many barely worn suits in more classic cuts are on there
Okay I’ll keep looking