A Zillennial’s Search for Giant Gen-Z Shorts
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Last week, my friendElizaveta Shneydermantexted me a subway-platform snapshot of a person wearing baggy blackjean shortsand sneakers, face cropped out. “Where are all the Gen Z getting shorts like this?” she asked.
I didn’t know, but she’s not the first to notice the shorts are everywhere in New York City. I see them most often on the train in Queens, but zoomers (plus some zillennials) across all five boroughs are wearing Bermuda-length denim shorts that sit low on the hips, baggy enough that you could fit a second set of legs inside. I had no idea where the baggy shorts-wearers were buying their baggy shorts, so I messagedBella Druckman, the Strategist’s resident Gen-Z whisperer.
As it turns out, Bella had just gotten off the phone with a teen source who’d mentioned denim from Garage and Urban Revivo, both stops onTween Row. Urban Revivo has a few pairs with the requisite bagginess and length, but nothing black.
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Next, I turned to Bella’s report onthe jeans teens are buying, published a few months ago as part ofJeans Month. A search through the brands in that article turned up some promising options: an XL baggy in several different washes from Cotton On,distressed Bermudas from Protémoa(sold out in every size other thanlarge), and a pair from Lewkin in a hard-twist black denim. “These for sure,” Shneyderman said about the latter.
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Google reverse-image searches turned up two more candidates from Korean fashion store Musinsa and the multi-brand retailer 60 Percent.
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It feels cosmically related to theBloomer Boomin women’s fashion and the fact that my nonbinary peers are dressing like Adam Sandler: giant basketball shorts, the ugliest short-sleeved button-downs you’ve ever seen in your life. For my part, I’m only interested in giant pants. I haven’t touched a pair of straight-legged Diesel jeans in months; I’m just wearingbaggy Levi’sthat swoosh around my legs and silky XL Adidas shorts. As a veteran of the horrible body-image culture of the ’00s, there’s something healing about dressing in these big, weird shapes — the clothes aren’t an imperative to prove you have the right kind of body, but ingredients to look the way you want.
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