The latest fashion focuses on the buttock gap

IN the series absurd trends, we have reached the butt-crack. Yes, just laugh. But as usual, there is something more behind it.

The controversial trend has its roots in pop culture, but also in everyday speech. Take the expression “plumber’s crack”, for example, jokingly – and also a bit sarcastic – applied to a visible buttock crack above the waistband.

Caused a stir

It is still the kind of trend that many probably hoped would never see the light of day again. A bit in the same street as jeans with a low waist, crocs and stomach tops – all of which are also back in full swing.

– Feels a bit forbidden

– It’s something that feels a bit new and can also be a bit sexy, says fashion journalist in Dagsavisen Sissel Hoffeng about the trend.

– But above all, it’s probably a sign that the trend wheel continues to spin, and that it’s fun to bring out trends that we know arouse strong emotions – such as cleavage and jeans that sit indecently low on the hips, she continues.

Because even in a world where more and more is needed to shock, surprise, even to be noticed at all, bare skin somehow has its own ability to engage.

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Just look at the nude dress that has taken both the catwalk and the red carpet by storm.

Yes, or the underwear that will now be visible.

– Gets a bit wrong

– Exposed skin always causes a certain amount of attention, and showing the cleavage can be seen as both helpless and comical. And if you add visible underwear, you somehow become even more naked than naked. There is something about the intimacy that is exposed, it titillates and feels a bit forbidden and indecent, and maybe even annoying for some, says Hoffeng.

– But put on a dress ala Kim Kardashian with the focus directly on the cleavage or Dua Lipa’s long sequined dress, completely covered in the front, but with an open back all the way down to the middle of the bum, then you can actually be both sexy and elegant.

– Rebel fashion”

Former fashion editor Carine Roitfeld calls the cleavage one of the most polarizing fashion trends ever.

Now it can be yours

Relatively easy to snort off, but still:

“For many, it is the ultimate essence of sexual liberation that gives one the opportunity to take back one of the most private and intimate areas,” she writes.

– Yes, are there any political references here?

– I see it a bit like rebel fashion, says Hoffeng.

Are you ready for this trend?

– We live in a time where we have become aware that equality and women’s rights cannot be taken for granted, and it may be that flashing one’s sexuality is a middle finger to conservative forces. The power that lies, not only in women’s, but also in queer sexuality, is frightening for many and thus it is also exciting to experiment with.

Rocked by the snobbery

But is the trend really new at all?

– Not at all, says the fashion journalist.

Because trousers with a low waist have been in fashion many times before.

The 1960s and 70s “hip trousers” for example, which got their name for a reason.

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In recent times, the trend can be attributed to designer Alexander McQueen and his Taxi driver– collection. The year is 1993, and it is the fresh designer’s first collection after graduating from the Central Saint Martins fashion school in London. He takes the entire fashion world by storm, and quickly becomes a name on everyone’s lips. This is where McQueen introduces the now familiar bums– the silhouette which is precisely a pair of trousers with a low waist that exposes the cleavage.

– It shook the snobbery and the so-called good taste in fashion, Hoffeng explains.

Absolutely forbidden

There are no images from this collection, but the germ of the seed has been sown.

Designer Thierry Mugler picks up the thread from McQueen just a couple of years later. When he shows his collection for autumn/winter 1995, it is with an elegant black cocktail dress that reveals a so-called cut-out at the back where the crack of the bottom can be seen behind a beaded border.

In 1997, Tom Ford shows the now iconic g-string with the Gucci logo on the catwalk.

And the well-known ball continues to roll as fashion takes its usual course: What has been comes again, and again. And again.

From Britney Spears’ low-cut jeans in the 2000s to today, where the trend is now getting new life.

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But will it ever become common property? Hardly, says Hoffeng.

– To say something a little unpopular, this is probably something that will be most pop among young people. And people who have spent a lot of money to get a nice butt, of course, says Hoffeng.

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