No cite, but I know from my friends back in and after high school (late ‘80’s) that at least some of them wore “the baggie look” for economic reasons…wearing their older brothers’ or dad’s hand-me-downs. I especially remember one friend who was about 6 inches shorter and 40 pounds lighter then his brother. He wanted to look “preppie” (remember them?), but ended up looking “gansta” because he got his brothers old pants instead of money to buy stuff that fit right.
I’m not saying that’s the reason for the look now, but it perhaps it helps explain the origins of the trend.
Fashion is almost always silly to those outside that particular culture or subculture. The link Dripping provided upthread is actually a pretty good example of one reason to do it: to show off your boxers. You’ve got cool boxers, they match your shirt, they contract nicely with your outer pants, what do you do? Drop your outer britches down and show those boxers off. Remember, a tshirt was once underwear you wouldn’t wear alone if you didn’t want people to think you were lower class.
Mohawks are silly. Tight jeans are silly. Two polos at the same time are silly. I saw a woman in an office wearing a tartan skirt inspired by punk rock bondage pants. Now, it just doesn’t get much sillier than that. Why do we wear this mess? Because it marks us as members of our groups and because we think it looks good. (Usually the other way around at first.) Feeling superior to people who don’t get it is just a side benefit.
One of my favorite conspiracy theories is that the some element of the government is “encouraging” the media to promote the low pant look in stuff (like rap music videos) popular with “urban” youth. Why? Because these young men tend to be crime prone, and and the low pants make them easier to catch. I base this on watching a number of stupid criminal videos where the would be thief gets caught because their baggy pants keep them from running very fast.
Where and when this all started anyway? I recalled seeing it in Japanese/Taiwanese shows before. No idea that kids over at the US are doing that too.
When I was in college one of my boyfriend’s suitemates dressed like this. He was such a sweetheart, except for his dress sense. A great dancer, too, and I was very fond of him…but when he was late to class and had to hitch up his pants to run so he wouldn’t trip over them it was hard not to laugh.
I think they’re ridiculous too, but bear in mind - there are women who wear shoes they can’t run in, or even walk on soft or uneven surfaces in. They also do this to fit in with a certain subculture.
I can understand wearing stuff that makes you look mean and scary to adults, like tatoos of flaming skulls, gang colours, leather and studs. What I cannot understand is wearing stuff that makes you look - ahem - developmentally challenged (is that the right euphamism?) - like you don’t know how to put on your own pants.
Of course, you’re not their target demographic of hood rats so baggy-pants-wearers don’t much care for your opinion. As long as the females they’re into like baggy pants, they’ll continue to wear baggy pants. Come to think of it, can’t just about all stupid things males do be boiled down to attracting women?
I’ve gotta say, I find skinny jeans way more offensive from an aesthetic POV.
I think this is a big piece of it, and much of why it continues in, say, poor Hispanic areas. I grew up in a largely immigrant town, and most of the boys sagged, mostly because they were wearing their older brothers’ or cousins’ clothing, but it became an image/solidarity thing, too.
The belted-below-the-butt look *completely *cracks me up, as a painfully obvious stretch beyond the “ghetto” look. It seems to me that they’re not even trying for a gangsta look anymore, that it’s something completely, stupidly beyond that. The look was supposed to be about being all ‘hood and wearing your cuz’ pants or dressing like you just got out of county, and now it’s multiple layers of expensive clothes strategically arranged and carefully cinched into place, restricting motion nearly as much as a pair of high heels does for a woman. Cracks me up in the same way that gothy, emo kids crack me up or… well, really any ham-handed attempt to fit yourself into an absurdly over-arranged fashion profile. The belt-below-the-butt thing makes me laugh because while a size or two too big pants exposing your boxers looks like an accident of circumstance and socio-economic status (legit), strategically-cinched below-ass pants just look… stupid and overly contrived (pure poseur). I don’t find it offensive, it just makes me giggle.
Sure, if women are attracted by it. So far, every time I’ve heard from women in the right age range, they are more or less unanimous that the look isn’t attractive.
I suspect it is more about fitting in with the other guys than about attracting women.
It will horrify you to know that this trend has spread as far as Oxford University. The main street near my house is beset with hordes of skinny white braying posh boys called Rufus and Sinjon and Tarquin, with floppy Public School hairdos, limping around with their boxer shorts on display, using one hand to steady their jeans just below their buttocks. That is, when they aren’t zooming up and down in traffic on their cnutish little portable scooters. Nathan Barley is alive and well.
There are plenty of women who are attracted to gangsta-looking dudes with baggy pants. If you’re looking for that type of guy, obviously that look will attract you. I have one friend who dates such guys exclusively, then is all mystified when they treat her badly and have no money 
The poseur preppy belted-below-the-ass look, though, I can’t say that prompts much more than helpless fits of giggles from the ladies I know.
By that comment, I don’t mean all dudes in baggy pants are poor and abusive, just that this friend of mine keeps seeking out guys that look like the ghetto, in-and-out-of-jail criminal-type, and then being surprised that they turn out to be ghetto and in-and-out-of-jail criminal types.
It’s that whole “bad boy” thing. Some people are attracted to that look.
This look though, still makes me giggle 
Right age range, maybe. Right social group, probably not.
What kind of girls have you heard that from, though? I’m assuming they’re not the kind of girls often found in rap videos, as they’re usually the ones who do like the look (or the attitude that often accompanies the look).
It’s more the latter I’m thinking about. You don’t get that many “genuine” ghetto gangstas in Toronto outside of the jane-finch corridor - here, it’s pretty well purely a faddy style, mostly by teens whose parents are reasonably middle class.
I can certainly understand why rebellious teens want to piss off their parents, but there are so very many more attractive ways of being a bad boy than that …
Nah, that’s just his first name. He runs a website called “Explicit Art”.
Did you think that the girls in rap videos are there because they like the look? They’re there because they are paid performers. They don’t make the video. The videos are designed to appeal to the guys who want to emulate the rappers. Who knows how many girls like that look?
In my observations, guys are often even more slaves to fashion than gals. Once they find a style, they stick with it until forced to change by a partner. For example: until Bill Gates got married, he still wore the same eyeglasses, clothing and hairstyle he had since middle school. I see this everywhere. These guys are going to be wearing their pants this way to the grave. Except, by then, maybe they’ll be hitching them up to their chests.
The pants and other attire just are social signals saying, “I am in this sub-culture.” There are both male and female members of this subculture and this is how they identify themselves. Toss in peer pressure, trying to look tough, trying to keep some kind of street cred, etc and here we are.
I dont really see how this is different than any fad before it. Ive met my share of ex punks who still wear pants one or two sizes too tight and have biker-esque leather jackets.
I think this, somewhat like punk rock before it, bothers people because its such a celebration of gang life, crime, being dumb, loud, and generally trashy. Instead of being ashamed of these kinds of things, this subculture validates them.
If this were the dress style of Harvard PhDs celebrating the advancement of arts and sciences, I’d still laugh.