Genderless, inclusive and liberating: oversize has accompanied the history of fashion and music. Outsized jackets and pants are still a trend today.
Oversize is back. Or maybe it simply never went away. The taste for dressing “out of proportion” has crossed the history of fashion, intertwining with music and street style. And just when it seemed definitively archived, here it is exploding again.
Even at Pitti, last Thursday, we could notice the desire to stay on this trend on the part of many brands. Oversized t-shirts, jackets, sweatshirts and coats even reach concert stages, fashion shows catwalks, taking us straight back to the glory days of hip-hop. If the oversized style has never really left our closets, it is because it tells something about us and how we feel. About our need to hide and be seen, to reclaim our body and free it.
The desire to change or exaggerate the shape of the body is not a recent invention. On the contrary, it runs through the entire history of fashion: just look at the portraits of the sixteenth century to realize that the enlarged shoulders and sleeves conveyed authority and power. The equation is very simple: more fabric available has always meant more wealth.
It is no coincidence that, in 1947, Christian Dior launched a series of corolla skirts that required fifteen meters of fabric each: the New Look wanted to give women back the joy of dressing after the restrictions of the war period, but it was perceived as a waste, a slap in the face of poverty. Paradoxically, depending on the context, a garment that is “larger than it should be” is perceived in opposite ways: it presupposes abundance or indicates necessity. In fact, even clothes inherited from older siblings or clothes that do not belong to us and, therefore, never fit as they should, are oversized.
But in fashion, necessity often makes a virtue. Between the late 1970s and early 1980s, hip-hop music expanded sizes to ensure freedom of movement. The oversized sweatshirts and t-shirts of street style, skaters and rappers became a manifesto of style.
During that period, it wasn’t just hair that was getting bigger: suits were looser and more comfortable, shoulders were raised. This brought us to the grunge culture of the 1990s, with the unmistakable sweaters and cardigans that were two sizes too big. In the 2000s, however, the legacy of the rap scene was picked up by the oversized outfits of Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Kanye West.
For a few seasons it seemed that the reign of oversize was over, or at least that it had been put in crisis by the 90s revival, which made everything a little slimmer, and by the explosion of catsuits, with their body-hugging line. But baggy jeans, voluminous down jackets and blazers with square shoulders were always there to remind us that dressing oversized continues to be very popular. Spring/Summer 2024 fashion confirmed it and hasn't stopped since.
The secret of this everlasting success is not to be found in aesthetics, but in the psychology of “loose” clothing: it tells something about how we feel. It can be associated with the desire to hide, to ‘disappear’ in clothes, to protect ourselves inside a soft sweatshirt or sweater. Or, on the contrary, to the desire to be seen and claim a space.
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