Low-rise jeans were a big trend back when they were still popular. For a variety reasons, I’m sure this is a style most of us will never wear again. For me, the number one sin of wearing low-rise jeans is exposing my thongs. You know what I’m talking about—the dreaded whale tail.
This controversial look made its debut on the runway during Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring/Summer 1997 show, which included models wearing exposed thongs and briefs. This horrible trend has returned again, since Y2K trends are still dominating fashion trends.
Why Won’t The Whale Tail Go Away?
Writer Eliza Huber Refinery 29She wrote a piece about wearing a whale tail out and about to warn Gen Zers that this trend might be revived. She wanted to know what it was like to wear visible thongs in public so she did it for a week.
She wore a different outfit at first “whale-tail-style garments”—everything from pants with a thong-shaped cut-out in the back to midi skirts with strings attached to the waist—that gave the appearance of exposed underwear. She concluded that these items were unacceptable. “surprisingly comfortable”It truly shocked me.
She tried styling the look with vintage parachute pants, real thongs and vintage parachute underwear. Her underwear was visible. When Huber attempted this authentic version of the whale tail trend, she realized she’d made a mistake.
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“Almost immediately upon stepping outside my front door, I felt uncomfortable,”She wrote. “As I walked to Trader Joe’s, I noticed that people were looking—no, staring—at me. Within five minutes, I turned around … heading back to my sartorial safety net of baggy jeans and a hoodie. Every last piece of photo evidence was, in turn, deleted from my phone.”
Huber eventually realized what all Gen Xers have known for years—there’s a good reason that whale tails came to an end back in 2006. The style might look good on the red carpet or on Instagram, but wearing a thong with low-rise pants in your everyday life is one trend that doesn’t deserve a reboot.
Whale tails remain popular with celebs and influencers, but it is still unknown why. It could just be that they like to be provocative, but most of us know that the whale tail should stay in the ’90s where it belongs.