The Brief: Big pants/little shirt vs. big shirt/little pants memes play with stereotypes about girls who wear certain trendy outfits.
DEEP DIVE
These memes compare and contrast styles with different sized shirts vs. pants. Here’s a quick breakdown of the styles in question:
- Big Pants/Little Shirt: the best-known and most-memed outfit of the bunch, this style traces back to the 1990s and is a current favorite am0ng the Alt Girls of TikTok.
- Big Shirt/Little Pants: worn by VSCO girls, the size ratio between shirt and pants often makes it so the pants are entirely covered by the shirt.
- Big Pants/Big Shirt: notably worn by Billie Eilish, this oversized ensemble is known for being comfortable.
- Little Shirt/Little Pants: this popular combo is considered more traditional and girly than the above outfits.
Memes about varying sizes of shirts and pants poke fun at current trends and the ways that young women are labeled based on what they wear. They also dive into the pros and cons of each outfit.
e-girls be like: big pants and small shirt or da small pants and big shirt fo today
— kpc? OUT NOW (@prxmvc) March 19, 2019
big pants/little shirt political compass: (I cannot confirm the accuracy but someone had to do it) pic.twitter.com/K3ibhjDQdh
— Liz Sommer (@liz_lawlz) July 22, 2020
big pants little shirt girl with bangs pic.twitter.com/Wjti8j7Ccn
— 🐚🐝🍚 (@shelbyfriedrice) May 23, 2019
In 2020 we have run out of casual fashion ideas all we have left are
-Big shirt/Big pants
-Little shirt/Big pants
-Little shirt/Little pants
-Bug shirt/Little pants— Scholf_A_Loaf ➐ (@Scholf_A_Loaf) July 18, 2020
tricky from subway surfers was the blueprint little shirt big pants girl pic.twitter.com/jfKXvgfs1k
— deja (@dejacheyannee) July 22, 2020
this is how I feel when I wear little shirt big pants pic.twitter.com/jcVvWn29KA
— Paris (@paris_ironman) July 21, 2020
are you a messy brown or dyed hair baby-faced nose piercing bottom-eyelash-mascara little shirt big pants indie girl or are you normal
— rip zeph (@zephanijong) May 4, 2020
On TikTok, many videos explore these styles of shirts and pants and the traits associated with each one. Videos associated with the hashtag #LittleShirtBigPants have been viewed over 2 million times on the app. A sound by user @microwavedtuna that asks alt girls to show off each of the four outfit options has been used in over 2,200 TikToks videos.
@virghoexoxo bruh #fyp #outfits #whatidwear #fashion
Another sound by @urclubpenguinboyfriend gives specific attributes to the girls who wear each of these outfits. The sound has been used in over 500 other TikTok videos.
@josiehatestiktok comment ur favorite or which category u think u are🙈🙈(also idk y she said ur clothes determines ur sexuality, it doesnt)#fashion#littleshirtbigpants
Audio from a video by @cracktoe inviting alternative girls to show off their little shirt/big pants looks inspired over 2,900 TikToks.
@cracktoe DO IT CUZ I KNO U HAVE MULTIPLE
Some people have been sharing how they feel more or less confident in these different outfits:
@itsroryo indie girls everywhere are shaking but I HAD TO SAY IT. big shirt little pants > little shirt big pants.
@zoemccarty its the truth 😭 ib // @papa.squat2