‘It’s Kind of Kinky’: Why Flaunting Your Keys Is a Hot Menswear Trend

livemint.com:

THIS SUMMER, the hottest men’s accessory might be a front-door key. Or a car fob, an AirPods case or anything else you can hang from a key chain. Stylish urbanites are announcing themselves with a jangle—clipping key rings plus all the trimmings to belt loops, caretaker-style.

“Euphoria" star Jacob Elordi has been snapped flaunting his keys with jeans. And finger-on-the-pulse brands like Our Legacy, Prada and JW Anderson sell key rings and silver chains designed to dangle. Here, a primer on the swashbuckling, slightly befuddling, trend.

To some, practicality. Thibaud Guyonnet, 31, a Berlin menswear buyer who cycles to work, finds securing his keys to his workwear pants with a carabiner “more comfortable than sitting on them." But this freeing of the keys registers as a style play too. A silver-and-green clip jazzes up the muted, all-black outfits of Alex Miller, 31, a coffee-machine technician in Milwaukee, Wis.

The move is “peacocky," said Brooklyn jeweler Martine Ali, whose gleaming key-chain designs are destined for belt loops. “It reads as confidence." Most appealing: Wearing keys this way eliminates pocket bulge. Yup.

Hot in the aughts, chain-flashing was popularized by bands like Green Day. It can be traced back to 1950s motorbikers, who strapped wallets to chains. Since at least the 1970s, meanwhile, members of the lesbian community have clipped key rings and carabiners to belt loops to subtly telegraph their preferences.

One might say that. Some regard key rings as discreet sexual symbols. And indiscreetly flashing one below-the-belt “drags attention to this area," said Guyonnet.