Phat pants

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File:Phatpantsbothsexes.jpg

Man and Woman wearing phat pants.

About phat pants

Phat pants are usually worn by ravers and can be used as a visual identifier. It is common at a typical rave to hear "I saw you at a party last week, I know those pants!". Usually made of denim, but can be made of any material. Ravers will often customise their phat pants by covering them with reflective materials of their own design, the brighter the better. This gives the effect, especially at parties, of what could be considered a super hero uniform: each one being colourful and unique. The added color helps raise the party vibe.

Phat pants are frequently adorned with a multitude of large pockets giving ravers a place to hold their water bottles, chupa chups and whatever else may be necessary to get them through a weekend of partying.

Phat pants in Australian rave culture

When a raver dances the Melbourne Shuffle the hidden feet effect of the wide legs gives the appearance of the dancer floating on air.

Ravers will buy the most original pair of phat pants that they can lay their hands on, as they are deemed to be a form of self expression. 'Phatties' can vary in cost from $80 to $400, with many ravers happy to spend such an extravagant price on one pair of pants as long as they are good quality and will last many hours of stomping and dancing at indoor as well as outdoor events. Some ravers even class themselves as 'elite' or 'hardcore' if they own several pairs of phats. This is not an attitude fostered by most ravers however. There are many male ravers in Australia that feel that one cannot do justice to their phats unless they are worn out in public on a shopping trip or similar activities.

Well known stores in Australia that make and sell Phat pants include Ministry of Style, Inacoma and Strange Days.

How they are worn

Phat pants are often worn with braces (US English: suspenders), which are not designed to be worn over the shoulders. They are quite often too short to do this anyway. They hang loosely on the pants from 'D' clips at the waist and are usually brightly coloured webbing with a reflective strip sown down the middle. Usually, the binding ring at the back is a heavy metal, which helps the braces to swing out in an arc around the dancer when spinning.

Not to be confused with

• Baggies

Because of the name "phat pants" some people who are not involved in the rave scene mistakenly confuse phat pants with baggy pants. Baggy jeans or "baggies" are a style of jeans that are worn by men and are deliberately excessively large. For instance an individual who is a size 30 will wear jeans that are a size 34. Usually baggies are a specific type of cut with wide legs, the same width all the way down the leg. They are closely related to loose fit and are sometimes incorrectly labelled as such.

• Flares

Flares are another type of cut of jeans involving wider legs. The distinguishing feature of flares is that they are a normal fit from the hips to the knees and then widen out from the knees down to the feet.

See also

• Rave
• Jeans
• Melbourne Shuffle

External links

• How to make your own phat pants
• Guy talking about his phat pants
• Article in Australian newspaper The Age talking about phat pants. Also includes picture of Tessa Arnold, designer at Ministry of Style, wearing a pair of her pink phat pants.
• Article in Metro Times of Detroit with women talking about clothing, including their phatties
• Website selling unisex phat pants
• Website of store selling phat pants - front page shows girl wearing phat pants.
• Photo gallery of store selling phat pants - contains phat pants for guys and girls, and shows that they are the same distinct cut.