A Pair of Pants, for Your Pants
There are ten different belts slung around AMBUSH's newest pants. Some wrap around the waist, stacked one atop the other, holding up different layers of pant, while others find themselves strapped to a leg, like in a pair of punk bondage pants. And no two belts have the same size, color, or shape.
What kind of pants necessitate such an excess of belts? Ones that simultaneously wear several other pants.
In the case of AMBUSH's Spring/Summer 2026 collection, its legwear features a multitude of different-fabricated pants — leather pants! Slacks! Light-wash jeans! — all Frankensteined together.
It's a peculiar mishmash of disparate fabrics for one pair of pants. And it finds itself among a growing list of other such hybridized trousers.
Balenciaga, while under the creative direction of modern-day fashion’s great provocateur, Demna, was an early proponent of pants wearing pants.
A creator of jeans with two waistbands since 2021, Balenciaga upped the ante for Fall 2024 by combining three pants into one: cargo pants, jeans, and sweatpants.
Others soon followed suit. The LA-based streetwear line Praying brought the concept to loungewear, stacking pairs of briefs above the waistband of wide-legged grey sweatpants, while A$AP Rocky’s AWGE brand layer several boxer briefs atop baggy jeans.
Now, you might be thinking all these pants and briefs being patched together look cool, but will ultimately be heavy and uncomfortable to wear. Fear not, Acne Studios has a solution. The Swedish fashion house’s trompe-l'œil denim is printed to create the effect of multi-layered pants. It’s a clever piece of surprisingly realistic trickery.
As with any items of clothing that are being layered above each other, combining pants presents opportunities for a satisfying clash of fabrics. Stitch together two pairs of simple pants, and suddenly, you’ve created something decisively left-field. But how about three pairs of different pants? Or four? Or five...
You can see how we’ve gotten to the point where AMBUSH is making pants that hold up to ten different belts.
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