25 Years Ago, Ross Got Taken Down… By Leather Pants

Ross Gellar’s worst enemies are probably his ex-wife Carol’s wife Susan, his ex-wife Emily’s parents, and... leather pants. It’s been 25 years since Ross (David Schwimmer) got taken down by leather pants on Friends, during the 1999 New Year-themed episode “The One With All the Resolutions,” and it still provides all of the laughs.

Ross’ New Year’s resolution for 1999, the last year of the 20th century, was to “be happy” and do one thing per day that he’s never done before. He starts by asking out a new girl at Central Perk named Elizabeth Hornswoggle — whose name is perfect material for Chandler — but he can’t make any jokes due to a $50 bet he made with Ross that he can go an entire week without making fun of his friends.

As his second risk of 1999, Ross buys a pair of leather pants to wear on his first date, which Chandler also can’t make fun of (though the rest of the gang does it for him). As soon as he arrives at Elizabeth’s house, Ross regrets his fashion-forward decision.

How The Leather Pants Won

Ross starts feeling overheated after wearing the pants for too long and goes to the bathroom to fan his legs with a magazine. However, when he tries putting his pants back on, he can’t get them up.

Desperate for help, he calls Joey of all people, who advises him to use baby powder so the pants slide up. When that doesn’t work, he recommends lotion, causing Ross’ hand to get too slippery and hit himself in the head. And that injury still wasn’t worth it.

As Ross exasperatedly says, “The lotion and the powder mixed together and formed some sort of paste.”

Joey then makes his best suggestion of the night: “paste pants!” Eventually, Ross gave up and admitted what happened to his date, which led to a very different walk of shame back home.

The Leather Pants’ Legacy

While Ross may have never worn leather pants again, their legacy lives on over two decades later. On the 2021 Friends reunion special, Cindy Crawford modeled the infamous leather pants, becoming the first person to don them since Schwimmer.

“They are the exact Agnès B. pants that Ross wore, and they fit her perfectly,” stylist Erica Cloud told PopSugar. “No one else has worn them besides those two icons.” Apparently, Crawford even wanted to carry baby powder and lotion to complete the reference, but “they ended up doing no props in the end.”

Schwimmer has been praised for his performance with the pants, with Decider calling it a “brilliant physical comedy showcase,” and Friends fans still debate over the garment, with some Reddit users not being afraid to argue that Ross did, in fact, work those pants.