Slim-fit pants
Slim-fit pants or skinny jeans (when made of denim) are tight trousers that have a snug fit through the legs and end in a small leg opening that can be anywhere from 9" to 20" in circumference, depending on size.[1] Other names for this style include drainpipes, stovepipes, tight pants, cigarette pants, pencil pants, skinny pants, gas pipes, skinnies, and tight jeans.
"Tight pants" redirects here. For the music single Tight Pants/Body Rolls by Leslie Hall, see Back 2 Back Palz.Skinny pants taper completely at the bottom of the leg, whereas drainpipes are skinny but then the lower leg is straight instead of tapering and so they are often slightly baggier at the bottom of the leg than skinny jeans. In some very skinny styles, zippers are needed at the bottom of the leg to facilitate pulling them over the feet because the leg opening is so small. Stretch denim, with anywhere from 2% to 4% spandex, may be used to allow jeans to have a "super-slim fit". Skinny jeans come in a variety of colors and styles.[2]
Medical problems[edit]
Victorian doctors theorised that tight trousers caused an outbreak of apoplexy in New York. However, the veracity of this claim is questionable, given the often speculative nature of early modern medicine.[20]
In modern times, some physicians believe tight trousers may cause numbness due to compression of nerves. For example, this may affect the outer thigh in the condition meralgia paraesthetica.[21]
A recent study by Korean doctors suggests that skinny jeans can cause varicose veins.[22] Among men, tight trousers may also cause dyspermia due to overheating of the testes.[23]
A study in 2015 documented the case of skinny jeans causing rhabdomyolysis, bilateral peroneal and tibial neuropathies.[24]
Bans and violence[edit]
Some opposers of skinny or tight pants believe that they are immoral, immodest, overtly sexual, or a threat to local traditions.[25] In conservative regions of the Southern United States and some other western countries, like Russia, it was often linked to homosexuality as of the 2000s.[26]
A number of schools around the world have banned students from wearing overly slim pants like "skinny jeans".[27][28] In the United States, the ban in Brigham Young University–Idaho caught the attention of mainstream media in 2011; the ban was lifted in that college the same year.[29] In one case, a student was banned from taking an exam for wearing skinny jeans.[30] In India some colleges have advised against or prohibited tight pants for female students, citing their own safety.[31] In Tanzania it was reported a female parliament member was asked to leave the parliament for wearing "skin-tight pants", with the parliament speaker calling it 'non-parliamentary attire'.[32] There have also been reported incidents in the world of court defendants being turned away for wearing such "unappropriate" slim pants.[33] Female police officers in Mexico have reported becoming victims of sexism for outfits which included tight pants.[34]
In the 2010s, several religious fundamentalist governments, especially radical Islamists, disapproved of tight trousers. In Saudi Arabia, the police were reportedly instructed to arrest teenagers who dress this way because the tight jeans are seen as un-Islamic and, when worn by men, a sign of homosexuality.[35] In the Gaza strip, Palestinian youths caught wearing skinny jeans have been arrested and beaten by the Hamas police.[36] Incidents of wearers being imprisoned or fined have been reported in places including Sudan[37] and in territories that were controlled by ISIL in 2015.[38] In Israel, a number of Rabbis signed a decree prohibiting devout Jewish men from wearing tight pants.[39][40]
Some people wearing them have been met with violence, such as in 2012 when unknown individuals murdered between twelve and one hundred people in Iraq—among them were "emos" of both sexes wearing tight clothes and emo hairstyles.[41] There has also been a case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where security officers attacked a number of women who were wearing tight pants.[42]
Since the Cold War, many Communist dictatorships have disapproved of skinny jeans. In Russia, they were associated with anticommunist juvenile delinquents like the Stilyagi beatniks during the 1950s or the so-called "hairies" during the 1960s. In Cuba during the late 2010s and early 2020s, law enforcement have used tight pants as a marker for male homosexuality in the context of arresting.[43] In May 2021, North Korea banned "skinny jeans" and a number of other fashion items for its citizens, citing it as "capitalistic".[44]