SUPER SIZE YOU

Words Samutaro


As silhouettes shapeshift, denim trend consultant and Instagram archivist Samutaro traces the rise of the bigger-is-better movement.

BIG fashion is back.

If one trend unites runway presentations from the past year, it’s that baggy style is back, and in a big way. Whether it’s longer lengths, wider cuts, slouchier fits or generally more pronounced proportions, supersized fashion has been hard to miss. This bigness is particularly visible at the provocateur-ish end of the style spectrum. Martine Rose, Marc Jacobs and Hed Mayner have all shown XXL shapes in pieces like denim, shirting, suiting and outerwear and seem to be asking themselves “How big can we go?” The latter, served up blazers cut as if they’re specifically for a mid-80s David Byrne for AW22.

Much of this oversized obsession can be credited to ongoing nostalgia for the 90s and 00s. The era is synonymous with the big clothes worn by everyone from skaters to ravers and mall goths. It's these kinds of subcultural uniforms that permeate the designs of influential designers like Martine Rose and Balenciaga head Demna Gvasalia who have made blown-up proportions a staple of their respective brands. In fact, it was Rose that helped to establish the present-day Balenciaga phenomenon through her design consultancy on the menswear side of the brand. Her signature pieces – cropped bomber jackets with ultra-wide shoulders, purposely drab tracksuits and suit jackets, helped inform the intentionally awkward design language the brand has become known for.

While Rose has become widely recognised for re-appropriating the loose fitting silhouettes synonymous with rave culture, her designs go beyond the realm of nostalgia. Her pieces - whether its floor-sweeping raver pants, voluminous tracksuits or exaggerated tailoring - offer their own social commentary and feel more like an extension of the subcultures she draws upon. By exploring everyday uniforms and arranging them in new contexts, she has formed a new set of distorted personas that are more representative of the times.

“I like to really push and expand what these characters and people are or what they can be,” she revealed on Ssense. “To really turn it on its head, taking something really familiar and seemingly mundane, to then push it in terms of fabrication or proportion, or the type of person you imagine it on. It’s playing with those boundaries and blurring them.”

Of course there is a certain cult appeal that comes with proposing such new proportions. Not everyone can wear it, but it's not supposed to be either. Still, even the most directional pieces at Balenciaga and Martine Rose are grounded in the kind of masculine reality that makes them relatable – even for the most straight edge guys. This is why mainstream artists are pushing themselves out of their comfort zones and experimenting with spacious silhouettes.

Justin Bieber went big (literally) at this year’s Grammy Awards when he showed up in an enormous Balenciaga suit complete with Crocs. Kendrick Lamar recently commissioned Rose to design the baggy leather looks for the London leg of The Big Steppers Tour. And just last month Nicholas Hoult rocked up to a charity event for his film The Menu in a sized-up outfit consisting of an oversized grey button-up and a pair of billowing trousers that was teamed with a pair of chunky black Derbies. “Relaxed, slightly left-field, yet still polished,” as GQ described.

These celebrity looks reflect a wider moment of experimental, baggier silhouettes dominating menswear in 2022. Gen Z officially called time on skinny in 2020, and since then it's become all about baggy fits. Independent labels like A1 Denim, Polar and 194 Local have been silently pushing big ol’ skate jeans to young tastemakers over the past few years. Even Hedi Slimane, the man who codified the skinny silhouette into legend, has loosened things up at Celine with those colossal ‘elephant’ jeans.

If your fit is not absolutely enormous, you aren't coming in.

The bigger-is-better movement has trickled down into the mass market too with highstreet giant Zara teaming up with London-based label and big jean pusher, Studio Nicholson. The collaboration featured the British label's signature balloon jeans and boxy jackets intended to be worn one size too big for a fuller effect.

The rise of streetwear and a wider acceptance of its styles codes has naturally brought new attention to the baggy wave. And it's not just for the boys either. With streetwear, many women have been quick to put on baggy pants and oversized hoodies that were designed more with men in mind. It has shown how many female consumers are comfortable — literally and figuratively speaking — dressing that way.

The global fashion shopping platform Lyst found that searches for fashion pieces including agender-related keywords increased 33% this year. Specifically, Lyst has tracked spikes for searches of oversized T-shirts, like the ones Billie Eilish and Chika wear, have grown consistently on Lyst since the start of the year and are currently up 231% compared to the same period last year.

The return of the baggy cargo pant is perhaps one of the best examples of how a key item can crossover between genders. Originally created for British military personnel, these loose-fitting military styles traversed into civilian style before being co-opted by OG streetwear brands like FUCT and Supreme in the 90s and later becoming a wardrobe essential for women, thanks to girl groups like TLC, All Saints, and Destiny’s Child. Fast forward to the here and now, and buzzy brands like (di)vision, Anderson Bell, and Bluemarble have shown iterations of cargos on their runways. But it’s the endorsement from female influencers like Dua Lipa, Hailey Bieber, and Bella Hadid that has fast-tracked the trend to the forefront of everyone’s minds.

While most of these young influencers lean into a more nostalgic connotation of baggy style, there is a growing number of designers that are leaning into this elevated approach to volume. Emerging designer Hed Mayner is one name who has made hulking silhouettes and exaggerated proportions the centre of his sartorial vision. Since the launch of his namesake brand, the Israeli-born designer has finely-honed his collections between fluid drapery, dramatic volume, and rigidly masculine forms that combine for a striking yet sophisticated visual balance.

In his SS23 collection notes, Mayner made it clear that he doesn’t do “overwrought statements of seasonal quirk.” Rather, season after season he revisits scaled-up proportions, honing them as a sculptor might. “I started by trying to build a silhouette that has a strong contact between front and back, and just being this two-dimensional look with a contrast,” he explained to Vogue backstage. That sentiment translated into a series of commanding silhouettes like billowing shirting, voluminous outerwear and gigantic jackets that looked straightforward enough from the front, until you caught the decadence of an open back.

Given the current post-pandemic landscape and socioeconomic climate, it's no surprise that many of us are seeking out oversized clothing as a mere reflection of comfort, whether it is literally for ease of movement or figuratively yearning for simpler times. Either way, the message is clear: BIG fashion is back. So if your fit is not absolutely enormous, you aren't coming in.

Back to Editorial