“In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, now, heaven knows, anything goes.”

What would Cole Porter make of kids today? And what would he think of the city fathers in Louisiana and maybe Georgia, New Jersey and Connecticut who are thinking about insisting on waist-cinched pants?

Jill Fields, author of An Intimate Affair: Women, Lingerie and Sexuality, looks at the issue in Saggy pants reveal more than underwear, and concludes:

Sagging pants (lawmakers claim the style originated in prison where belts are not permitted) are a goofy American fad; the problems they represent aren’t. Officials should stop trying to pull up young men’s pants and take time to listen to this youthful fashion statement.