Low-waisted comfort, an oxymoron that took shape in cargo cargo in the early 2000s. Recovered from the decade of minimalism, which had peacefully renounced the first concept and indulged in the second, delivering us to the joys and sorrows of glossy covers and less happy rotogravure pages for gossip, their story begins a little earlier, at the end of the Thirty.
In Europe, at that moment, war preparations were more or less out in the open and, mindful of the war needs that arose during the First World War, many national armies also renewed their uniforms. Every soldier must have a minimum kit of essentials, from ammunition supplies to first aid supplies; it is the end of an elegance codified by medieval chivalry and changed until the nineteenth century, the tailored uniforms are obsolete. There is already camouflage, invented by cubist painters to deceive the enemy from behind the trenches, here are the suits, bomber jackets and cargo planes.
Those side pockets at knee height are a lifeline, perfect for holding extras which, in emergency situations, can make the difference. The fabric is stiff and resistant, waxed to be waterproof. Having laid down their weapons, no one would have imagined wearing them except for specific purposes and professions, from construction to mining and the automotive industry. What brought them out of workwear were the young people in the 1980s and the b-boys who, on their skateboards, surfed on the concrete of metropolises and suburbs, cans of spray paint in hand, unknowingly becoming the favorite toy of cool hunters. Alongside the mohawks of punks and the ties of rampant managers, they ransack their parents' wardrobe and take their cargo trousers onto the street. Strictly a few sizes larger, they drop with every step under a bottom that they are not afraid to show off: it is another way of challenging the system.
If Couture doesn't want to hear about it, ready-to-wear opens its way onto the catwalks; it is the rise of Carhartt in large-scale retail trade, which in 1994 adds the WIP division to divide the lines, the beginning of a new approach to research for names like Diesel by Renzo Rosso, Marithé + François Girbaud, the dawn of niches dedicated to the genre such as Etnies and Volcom, the contamination with Japanese culture that has taken over the Made in USA banners.
When we see them on MTV, RnB and rap music are already a mass phenomenon; teenagers imitate their myths, dress oversized without knowing why; echoes the pop of TV series and the first socialites to come to the rescue on television which will then lead to social media: cargos are the favorite model of the most envied girlfriend in America, Jennifer Aniston both on stage on the set of Friends and in private, but also Paris Hilton, Gwen Stefani, Bjork, Madonna; it would be easier to say who hasn't been photographed wearing a pair while walking in New York or on the red carpet.
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