It’s a sight that makes many Britons wince after, perhaps unfairly, becoming associated with tradies on building sites.
But according to Diesel’s Milan Fashion Week showcase, the ‘builder’s bum’ is back.
Models on the catwalk paraded extremely low-rise jeans as they showed off their ripped physiques – and very nearly revealed a little too much.
The daring look follows several years in which high and mid-waist jeans have dominated the fashion landscape – much to the relief of millennials.
But the extremely low-rise waistband dates well back to the 1990s, with Alexander McQueen debuting his daring silhouette, ‘the bumster’, as part of his first ever collection in 1996.
They became one of McQueen’s signature looks throughout his career and cemented his reputation as the ‘bad boy’ of the fashion industry.
The builder’s bum is back! Diesel’s daring Milan Fashion Week line shows off extremely low rise jeans that risk revealing a little too much
The so-called ‘builder’s bum’ has, perhaps unfairly, become associated with tradies on building sites
Speaking in 2009, the Guardian reports, McQueen said: ‘To me, that part of the body – not so much the buttocks but the bottom of the spine – that’s the most erotic part of anyone’s body, man or woman.’
In 2014, four years after the designer’s death, a red pair of the trousers designed by McQueen in his statement collection sold for £3,500 at auction.
With ‘Taxi Driver’ that was presented on a clothes rail at the Ritz, the late, great British designer elevated the ‘builder’s bum’ from an eyesore to the season’s most enviable accessory.
That wasn’t his plan; McQueen told the Guardian he was simply accentuating what he believed was the ‘most erotic part of anyone’s body – man or woman’.
Soon, the world awoke to the sensuality of his style and the ultra-low rise pants quickly infiltrated the masses, with millennials across the world wriggling into their favourite pair after celebrities like Britney, Beyonce, and the Noughties ultimate It Girl, Paris Hilton popularised the style.
The ‘builder’s bum’ wasn’t the only daring design choice made by Diesel during its MFW show – with a female model going braless in a sheer body suit
After a season of respite, which saw high-waisted and bootcut styles make a brief comeback, it appears Gen Z’s affinity for Y2K fashion has forced designers back to the board with a seemingly impossible brief: to make low-waist jeans cool again.
Diesel creative director Glenn Martens’s vision for the denim brand’s autumn/winter presentation at Milan Fashion Week saw the return of the low-rise, where models paraded down the catwalk in his slouchy creations.
Debuting the line, Martens once again glamourised the ‘builder’s bum’ while shouting out the creator of ‘the bumster’ himself.
In a preview before his show on February 26, Martens noted he saw the opportunity to revive McQueen’s famous design and ‘bring them back’ for a new generation of jeans-wearers.
A representative for Diesel later told the New York Times that the risqué jeans – modelled by two men and one woman – will indeed be produced and available for sale.
The butt cleavage-baring style required a bit of nifty engineering to keep them perched on its wearer’s posterior just so, with the designer revealing he used elasticated jockstraps to hold them up.
‘It glues really well,’ he added.
