Would you ever wear two pants on top of each other?

Between TikTok and Instagram, a new way of wearing pants is beginning to circulate almost imperceptibly-and that is to stack two pairs, one on top of the other, to create the illusory effect of a double waist and alter the silhouette of the legs. Recently, in the far North Europe, where the teenage dirtbag aesthetic has been tainting the mischievous well-beheaved scandi boys for a year or two already, we have begun to see a loose-fitting sports pant worn over a pair of tight jeans - a natural and inventive evolution of the classic exposed boxer. Elsewhere, on TikTok, challenges and "Get Ready With Me" videos are starting to spread, in which two pants are overlapped to achieve different kinds of effects: from double denim that draws a silhouette tight at the waist and wide at the ankles, to those imitating the "leggings under jeans" vibe once seen on Gigi Hadid, and even passing by nostalgic nu metal fans who put together cropped knee-highs and flared jeans. The look, let's face it, is not for everyone, as well as still definitely under the radar. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that what seems only a styling oddity and a good way to attract the attention of social or street style photographers in the case of fashion weeks, has instead interesting precedents on the catwalks, the frequency of whose appearances, in recent years, suggests that perhaps such a trend could really emerge in the light of the mainstream.

It all began, roughly, in 2017 when the most absurdly popular street style item at fashion weeks in Paris and New York were Maison Margiela's Fused Jean Trousers, a low-waisted pinstripe wool trouser from the waistband of which high-waisted jeans emerged in a curious (but chic) trompe-l'œil effect. They liked the style and continued in its hidden, strange life re-emerging conceptually in the modular pants of Balenciaga's SS18 collection and then exploding in the brand's FW21 collection that included numerous looks with one pant worn over the other-the jogger combined with denim was the most notable of all. Glenn Martens, on the other hand, had started as early as 2016 to put one pant on top of the other: Y/Project's FW16 exploited the chaps gimmick to combine leather pants with synthetic fabric or even overlap two different denims, a trend that Martens remixed for the brand's SS23 by creating the illusionary print of a denim on the bottom hem of a T-shirt, creating a visual split. At Diesel, on the other hand, the double pant is present in one form or another in almost every collection, from the FW22 runway debut to the three subsequent collections. And if more mainstream brands have recently played with the idea of a split waistband in pants, such as Miu Miu and its double waistband and removable side skirts seen in Dior's Egyptian show (but the central look of the collection with ERL also included an exposed boxer that multiplied waistlines) as well as the ripped denim from which black pants emerged seen in JW Anderson's SS23. Aided by the return of the branded exposed boxer, the sagging pant, and in general all those styling solutions that duplicate layers to show below the waist, the trend also came from Jacquemus in its latest show, on the runways of Maison Mihara Yasuhiro, on those of London-based brand Noki, and in Kolor's SS22.

Y/Project FW16

Balenciaga SS18

Balenciaga FW21

Rokh Resort 2022

Kolor SS22

Diesel FW22

Dior Resort 2023

Miu Miu FW22

Maison Mihara Yasuhiro SS23

JW Anderson SS23

Noki SS23

Jacquemus SS23

Dior Pre-Fall 2023

Beyond the more or less meticulous notation of the appearance of this style on the catwalk (there is an unfortunate lack of methods of tracking the spread of the trend that are not strictly empirical) it is worth noting how the "movement" followed by the presence of two overlapping pants has moved from the typical intellectualism of a brand like Margiela toward gradually more artistically chaotic fields of reference, see Demna and Glenn Martens, and then found a home in the popular but absolutely emerging teenage dirtbag aesthetic that involves the return of popular, teenage classics of the early 2000s in a revised and corrected guise-more androgynous, more provocative, more silhouette-modern. Could we perhaps interpret this oddity as the first symptom of a fashion experienced in a more playful way? Indeed, the trend is almost an ode to DIY. We'll see if it takes root or not.