The Source Code of Cargo Pants

The '90s cult cargos that defined an era of subcultural style.

The next HIDDEN drop is just a few days away, and with every release, there’s a ton of research that goes into some of the new cut-and-sew pieces that have been developed, as well as some of the sly graphic references that have become the lingua franca of streetwear and any brand that traffics in subcultural codes.

Unsurprisingly, plenty of inspiration for this drop came from the late-1990s and early-2000s, an era that currently has a chokehold on the TikTok trend zeitgeist, vintage addicts, and the oversized aesthetic that still largely characterizes plenty of today’s vibiest Japanese cult labels, lookbooks, and magazines.

That oversized aesthetic lends itself particularly well to military garments, which have long been a staple of streetwear, classic brands (whether it’s Ralph or Abercrombie), and Japanese repro labels alike. But when it comes to one label that re-contextualized the cargo pant in an especially novel way, all roads lead back to Soho— Soho, London that is….