down the drainpipe, part I

it is with some trepidation that i begin this post, as i possibly have discovered --with the drainpipe pant -- the history of the modern era.

but i'm getting ahead of myself.

howbout we start at the beginning, and we'll break this up.

first, the definition:

drainpipe

One entry found for drainpipe.

Main Entry: drain·pipe
Pronunciation: 'drAn-"pIp
Function: noun
: a pipe for drainage

whatever this has to do with the drainpipe pant silhouette, fuck if i know.

in the meanwhile i'm going to resist plumbing metaphors, though rest assured they are forthcoming.

the drainpipe pant, as you all surely know ---- as the thing has mutated into an international epidemic as of late --- is a species of tight pants. they are skin tight, ass sagging (more often observable on men), and sharply tapered at the ankle. i quote the very useful "urban dictionary":

Unfortunately due to the logistics of finding jeans to fit so tightly, this trend often results in low sitting jeans which have a particularly ill fit around the bum, appearing as though one might be carrying a shite around in their pants.

let's begin with the edwardian look, circa 1906:



the 1950s "teddy boy" -- and by extension, "teddy girl" -- phenomenon, earned it's name from a timely launch in britain after WWII by savile row of turn-of-the-century edwardian silhoettes. a Daily headline in 1953 shortened up the idea of the edwardian look with the name "ted", trying to put a name to all those ne'er do wells in waistcoats lousing up the sock-hop --- and hence, teddy boys:



The significance of wearing trousers which had bottoms less than 15 inches was lost on most parents but within many male street-corner social groups it was of monumental importance.
It became common-place for newly purchased trousers to be 'smuggled' into the neighbouring homes of amenable tailoresses to taper to the required measurement, or for new pairs of jeans to be baptised in the bath in an attempt to shrink them and make them tighter.
source: http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/articles/InBetweenTimes/Page3.htm

(i dig thinking of seamstresses as covert 'collaborators'.)

the drainpipe, of course, gained its first blushing notoriety with the beatles in their hamburg days:



i for some reason though, associate them most strongly with badboy pete best, who shortly got booted for being too beautiful



(i mean, even when the rest jumped on the bandwagon and did the moptop thing, pete was the one who defiantly kept the DA, (duck's arse), the telltale sign of the teddy boy:)



(however, it is speculated, that even though paul was going around waxing nostalgic about his teddy days back in liverpool, and pete kept the haircut, the only TRue teddy boy of the whole lot was my man ringo. he apparently was so teddy he was even rockin' the beard.

well, that was til brian epstein told him to shave it off.) anyway.

there were also some seriously cool teddy girls. these gals, the liverbirds, were running around hamburg about the same time, and as you can see, they've also got the pants:



here below are some chicks back in england at the beginning of the teddy craze. like the famous beatles shot above they are also hanging out in rubble



and i just wanted to include this last teddy girl, because she's just so bad.



to be continued.....

a taxonomy of pants

i just thought it might be about time for me to start writing all this down.
i was just thinking about the history of pants and really, if you just focus on pants you can find out about pants.

In New Zealand in the 1930s, farmers reportedly had trouble with exploding trousers as a result of attempts to wipe out the weed ragwort.

but i was more thinking about the actual words for different silhouettes, shapes, whatever -- more like a taxonomy than a social history. though once we've got a good layout of the species, trying to lay that in with the cultural implications could be ----------------significant.

the idea here though, and i'm only going to say this once (not a promise), this blog is going to deal with things as long as my attention span allows. i always promise myself i'll come back to things ---- but, like the taxonomy of pants, we'll see.

so anyway, i was also thinking about the dada movement from the 20s and how i really dig the fonts.

i was in the 'h' part of the art section of the neukoelln library, and there was a book about hanna höch, and it's uncanny, first of all, her haircut is exactly like my friend hanna's, but also her collages look just like mine. not this one, but this is an example, kind of, of the cool fonts:



i also came upon david hockney, who i've always sort of disregarded, but this painting took my breath away:



actually, it wasn't this one. the one that took my breath away was called, "domestic scene, 1963". when i googled "domestic scene," however, this is what i got:



he got his inspiration from the magazine "physique pictorial"



makes you wonder what those man onesies are called. anybody got an idea? some sorta leotard.

It was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1839–1870), about whom the song "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" was written.