New York City Fashion Week might be over, but you don't have to have watched every runway show this season to have noticed that over the past several years, pants have been ballooning to nearly comical portions.
For Hell Gaters of a certain generation and subcultural leaning, the big ol' jeans we see (and sometimes wear) on a daily basis harken back to a simpler time, when PLUR ruled supreme and A.I. was just a movie starring Haley Joel Osment. I'm talking, of course, about rave pants: big, billowing garments perfect for dancing the night away on that new ecstasy thing that everybody was talking about.
Of course, you didn't need to be a hardcore raver to rock a pair of UFO Jeans—pants from UFO Contemporary, Inc., the brand that brought the silhouette to global popularity. And it turns out that as big pants return, the company behind UFO Jeans is still around, and according to principal and clothing designer Lorna Brody, the daughter of UFO Contemporary founders Leo and Evelyn Brody, the brand is just as strong as ever.
Hell Gate talked to Brody, whose company is still based in Manhattan and Long Island, about the origin story of the pants that graced a thousand warehouse parties, the legacy behind her brand, and why the company has eschewed influencer tactics so endemic to the modern fashion industry.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
