Bondage trousers

Bondage trousers

Bondage trousers or bondage pants are trousers with zippers, straps, chains, rings and buckles, giving an appearance of a BDSM style. They come in a variety of colors and patterns; one of the most common patterns being tartan. They also come in a variety of styles, including tight or baggy, long, short or Capri pants.

Fetish or "bondage" chic can be traced back as far as the 1930s with the creation of the hobble skirt, and arguably other earlier fashions such as the vogue for tight corseting can be viewed as fetishistic precursors of fetish fashion.

They have mainly been worn by members of youth subcultures, including punks, ravers, goths and indies. Although many people consider these pants an element of fetish wear, many early punks have said the origins of the pants were from homeless people who put straps on their pants so they could hold on to a train. Fashion designer Malcolm McLaren created many items of BDSM-inspired clothing for the 1970s punk rock scene, in particular bondage trousers that connected the wearer's pants legs with straps. The trousers were made infamous by people such as the Sex Pistols, Jordan and Adam Ant who would have to originally get them from Westwood/McClarens "SEX Boutique", later to become Seditionaries, in World's End, Chelsea, London. The original drainpipe trousers design was an anti fashion statement against the bell-bottoms/flares of the time. They could be worn either with a bum flap hanging down the backside, or the double sided kilt. The zipper also went from the top of the waistband right up behind to the top of the buttocks. The trousers were also accompanied by bondage jackets parachute tops. Later shops such as BOY would also produce their own version of the Trousers.

The men's variety tend to feature baggier legs, larger pockets and more metal details such as chains, skulls, mock handcuffs and D-rings while the women's styles are usually more tailored and have less metal hardware decoration than the men's styles but occasionally have details of lace, ribbon or tartan making them seem more feminine.

The more popular of the pants seems to be the 'original' black style, with white stitching, although different colored versions including white, hot pink, blue and green have been made with equally varied colors of stitching.

There has been some controversy at certain schools in the United States about the bondage pants being a danger to school property and also for supposed sexual inappropriateness, even to the extent of banning the pants.

References

Christina Goulding, "Corsets, silk stockings and evening dress: retro shops and retro junkies" in "Time, space, and the market: retroscapes rising" (edd. Stephen Brown, John F. Sherry), M.E. Sharpe, 2003, isbn 0765610124, pp. 54-74
Tavia Nyong'o, "Do You Want Queer Theory (or Do You Want the Truth)? Intersections of Punk and Queer in the 1970s", Radical History Review 2008(100) pages 103-119
Angela McRobbie, "British fashion design: rag trade or image industry?", Routledge, 1998, isbn 0415057817, p. 8
Andrew Travers?, "Ritual Power in Interaction", Symbolic Interaction, Fall 1982, Vol. 5, No. 2, Pages 277-286

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