Underwear as outerwear
1. The High-Fashion Spark: JennyFax (September 2025)
The aesthetic ground for this trend was broken by the surrealist Tokyo fashion brand JennyFax (designed by Shueh Jen-Fang). They released the "Panty Ribbon Bow," an official $119 accessory featuring a frilly pair of silk panties scrunched up, attached to a metal hair clip, with the leg holes dangling. The item went viral across Asian social media platforms, pushing the concept of underwear-as-hairwear into the cultural lexicon and making it a sought-after subversion of traditional femininity.
2. The Viral Catalyst: Kendall Jenner at the World Cup (June 2026)
While JennyFax made it an expensive accessory, the act of physically taking them off in public to tie up hair became an organic, viral trend due to Kendall Jenner. During a hot 2026 FIFA World Cup match in the stadium, Jenner was caught on camera improvising a solution to the heat by using her own underwear as a makeshift hair tie.
The stadium moment exploded across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. It quickly evolved from a frantic, relatable fix into a full-blown internet challenge and public trend, with creators filming tutorials on how to easily loop and style underwear into a clean top-knot or ponytail while out in public.
The underwear hair tie trend (also referred to cross-platform as the panty scrunchie or panties-as-hair-tie challenge) is a viral fashion and social media phenomenon that emerged in late 2025 and peaked in mid-2026. The trend involves using women's underwear—specifically briefs or thongs—as a makeshift hair accessory to secure ponytails, buns, or top-knots. The phenomenon transitioned from a high-fashion runway concept to a widespread public participatory challenge following a highly publicized celebrity occurrence during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Origins and development
High-fashion predecessor
The conceptual origin of using undergarments as hair accessories is widely attributed to the Tokyo-based avant-garde fashion label JennyFax, helmed by designer Shueh Jen-Fang. During their September 2025 collection, the brand introduced the "Panty Ribbon Bow," a $119 retail hair accessory consisting of scrunched silk underwear attached to a hair clip. The design was intended as a subversion of traditional feminine aesthetics and gained significant traction within niche fashion circles and subcultures on East Asian social media platforms.
2026 World Cup catalyst
The transition from a manufactured luxury accessory to the public act of utilizing functional undergarments occurred in June 2026. During a match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, American media personality and model Kendall Jenner was recorded by stadium cameras improvising a hair tie using her own undergarments due to high temperatures.
The broadcast footage and subsequent paparazzi photographs circulated rapidly online, generating substantial media coverage across entertainment and style outlets.
Social media phenomenon
Following the World Cup broadcast, the action evolved into a participatory internet challenge on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Public Performance: Creators filmed themselves removing undergarments in public spaces (such as restaurants, sporting events, and parks) to instantly tie their hair back.
Styling Tutorials: Content creators developed specific folding and looping techniques to obscure the precise nature of the garment, mimicking the appearance of oversized standard fabric scrunchies.
Anonymity vs. Visibility: Media commentators noted that the trend relied on a duality: to the casual public observer, the garment resembled a standard hair accessory, while the online context provided subcultural recognition.
Cultural and critical reception
The trend received mixed commentary from fashion critics, sociologists, and the public.
Sociological Perspective: Some cultural analysts viewed the trend as an extension of the "underwear as outerwear" movement, framing it as a lighthearted manifestation of bodily autonomy and sartorial subversion.
Conversely, critics dismissed the phenomenon as a fleeting example of algorithmic hype, engineered entirely for short-term engagement and shock value on short-form video platforms. Public reception occasionally centered on debates regarding public etiquette and hygiene, though proponents emphasized that the tutorials almost exclusively utilized clean or freshly unboxed garments for demonstration.
See also
Internet meme
Underwear as outerwear
2026 FIFA World Cup
Scrunchie