Boy, pull up your trousers! Or, actually, don’t. The latest way to wear your pants is to let them fall low enough to sit somewhere around the hips, with the waistband of a boxer or brief occasionally making an appearance. What was once a fashion faux pas has now become one of the season’s most deliberate styling choices. Call it sagging, low-waist, or simply the art of wearing your trousers lower than intended: the silhouette is having a moment, and it is a more culturally layered one than it may first appear. Whatever you call it, the waistline is moving south.
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Low-rise denim has been edging back into wardrobes, but its latest iteration feels less Y2K revival and more genuinely undone—looser, slouchier, deliberately unconcerned with defining the body. On the runways, designers have been exploring the same idea in different architectural ways. Chanel’s fall/winter 2026 collection saw skirts, dresses and trousers sitting below the natural waist, creating an elongated torso and an almost gravity-defying effect. More recently, Central Cee was spotted hitching up his trousers on Burberry’s spring/summer 2027 runway, bringing the low-slung silhouette and its nonchalant attitude to the forefront once again. The drop waist, once synonymous with the flapper silhouettes of the 1920s, has found a distinctly modern rhythm. But to simply call this a runway revival would miss the point. The low-slung look carries a much longer and more significant cultural history.
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The act of sagging became deeply embedded in hip-hop and Black American street style throughout the 1990s and 2000s, when oversized jeans worn low on the hips formed part of the visual language surrounding rap music, music videos and streetwear. Artists like Playboi Carti helped bring the dress code into the mainstream, pairing low-rise trousers with cropped tops, oversized jerseys and sneakers: a look that felt deliberately relaxed and rebellious, a rejection of the idea that clothes needed to sit where they were supposed to. That legacy matters as the silhouette travels through fashion today. Sagging’s influence on contemporary dress—the baggy proportions, visible waistbands, and nonchalant attitude toward fit—did not emerge from a runway. It came from a community that used clothing as a form of self-expression and rebellion, and that context deserves to be named.
K-pop’s younger acts are also stepping out in low-slung fashion, embracing hip-hop-inspired styling with their own youthful sensibilities. I just tried sagging a few times, rapped the boys of Cortis in their single ‘Young Creator Crew’, and that they did. Juhoon recently took the trend to the stage at the Singapore Grand Prix, performing in blue trousers slung low on his hips. Alongside acts like Lngshot, the group is bringing a fresh energy to hip-hop’s sag to swag mantra, pairing slouchy trousers with oversized tops and streetwear staples.
The interpretation has become increasingly fluid across genders. For women, sagging can be a way to play with proportions, whether through a glimpse of underwear beneath oversized denim or a pair of trousers worn low against a fitted top. At Miu Miu’s fall 2026 show in Paris, Tyla offered a particularly direct take on the look, pairing exposed boxer shorts with slouchy parachute pants and a brown belt that sat low on her hips.
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But sagging need not be confined to a single silhouette. The look is as much about how the waistband is styled as it is about how low the trousers sit. A statement belt can anchor a loose pair of jeans, while double denim brings a more coordinated edge to the otherwise undone aesthetic. For those who prefer a subtler interpretation, a low-slung trouser paired with a tucked-in shirt or cropped jacket can offer a similar sense of ease without leaning too heavily into the exposed-waistband look.
Ultimately, the appeal of sagging lies in its refusal to be too precise. Whether worn with a visible waistband, cinched with a belt or layered in denim, the low-slung silhouette invites a little experimentation with the way clothes sit on the body. This season, the most interesting thing you can do with a waistband might just be to let it fall.
