I mean, women had a labia shawl, so why shouldn't men have testicle trousers?
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‘Ballbottoms’ Grab the Fashion World by the Balls

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When it comes to fashion, there is one rule – there are no rules. These days, anything goes. And by anything, I’m specifically talking about this:

Image Credit: Instagram/Harri_KS

I mean, women had a labia shawl, so why shouldn’t men have testicle trousers? And don’t even try to tell me that you aren’t thinking EXACTLY the same thing.

The ball-sy designer behind these beauties is 26-year-old Harikrishnan, a student at the London College of Fashion. He designed the “ballbottoms” as part of his graduate thesis collection, “Let’s Put Him In A Vase.” The inflatable (yes, they are inflatable) pants are made up of 30 panels of latex and are pumped full of air via a seven millimeter-wide inflation valve at the bottom.

Harikrishnan says he chose Latex because it was the perfect material. Condom creators thought so too. Not only does it stretch, but its “shiny finish exaggerates the trouser’s bulging silhouettes” as well.

And I have to say, we’ve got questions. Namely, who looks at these pants and sees anything other than a pair of golden nuggets? The designer himself, apparently. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Harikrishnan responds to a question about their resemblance to the family jewels:

I never saw that. It’s a new perspective for me, but now I can’t unsee it. It just looks like that.

We can’t unsee it either.

He goes on to explain:

Insiders, those in fashion, those who do art and cultural studies, they don’t see that. Their eyes are trained to see it in an artistic way. For outsiders, that’s not in my hands. That’s the relationship between the designer and the common man. You condition your eyes to see in a different way.

And I am definitely the “common man” he is referring to. Listen, I know I have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy and I should probably work on getting my mind out of the gutter, but there is no way that you look at these and don’t start immediately thinking of taglines. And “Let’s Put Him In A Vase” isn’t one of them.

  • “Let’s Put Him In A Sack”
  • “For The Man With Balls”
  • “Why Grow A Pair When You Can Wear Them?”
  • “Having A Ball”
  • “Dress For Success: Keep Your Eyes On The Ball(s)”
  • “My Balls Are Bigger Than Your Balls.”
  • “Never Be Accused of Having No Balls.”

While I feel that Harikrishnan may have missed out on a great opportunity in the tagline department, he definitely didn’t drop the ball when it came to creating a design that gets people talking. And it’s all thanks to his dog. He says he was inspired by his pug, Kai, while they were playing in his garden (probably with a ball).  He tells art magazine Dezeen:

I got the idea when I was playing with my dog and I started thinking about how exaggerated objects must look from such a low angle. The thought of him seeing me as a giant figure or not seeing my head at all was intriguing, so I decided to reimagine the people around me through the game of distortion – detached from the stereotypical, pre-determined notions of the human perspective.

That’s a lot deeper than saying he was inspired by his junk.

Naturally, the folks of Twitter had a ball with the ballbottoms:

Ball jokes aside, we applaud Harikrishnan for doing exactly what fashion is meant to do – push the boundaries, question the status quo, and create conversations. And it seems to be paying off. He has already been approached by a few stylists in both the music industry and theater interested in working with him.

While it is extremely unlikely that these trousers will be coming to a store near you anytime soon (or ever), you can always find a pair of MC Hammer pants on Amazon to fill the void.

Image Credit: Amazon.com