I can wear a dress to work and nobody criticizes me. I’d be really sad if I had to wear pants all the time, they’re just not as comfortable. Let’s normalize pretty dresses for dudes!
Yea, but let’s design some to work on male bodies. Dresses are generally built for female body shapes, and rely on curves most guys just don’t have in order to complete the shape - so we end up looking like Graveyard Barbie in them.
Guys tend to be a lot more oblong, and the overall design would need a rethink in order to actively work with that shape, instead of unsuccessfully trying to compensate for it.
No, I don’t know how to do this.
I was a slutty nun for Halloween and looking cute in a skirt is definitely possible, but man does it take a lot of work to find anything that fits decently. Dresses are simply impossible to find of course because, as you said, the shape is not at all made for men.
Also that outfit made me want to go full f1nn5ter and dress up in feminine clothes all the time lol. It’s so much fun! I’m so down for people to figure out how to make the shape work for masculine body shapes.
I was a slutty nun for Halloween
Just don’t make it a habit.
I don’t know if I could keep that vow.
TBH, I would rather be a slutty nun than a slutty priest.
You better, unless you want to hurt your temples
My first thought when I read op was that trousers are a relative new development.
The Romans made fun of the Gauls for wearing them.
So if you decide to wear traditional Roman dress, trousers shouldn’t be included.
But it’s still designed for men.
Pretty cool how the Romans just took a good idea from a more primitive culture. Guess there wasn’t anyone around to scream about cultural appropriation.
The Romans calling the Gauls primitive is a bit like the British calling the Americans primitive.
True, but for Gods sake don’t look in the mirror.
Took me a while to figure you were referring to native americans, not the current 'muricans
Wait, what? No!
Yeah, well, I’m sorry, but yes viewing the current Merkins as stupidly violent savages is a thing on this side of the Atlantic.
We Europeans on the other hand would never attack someone without reason.
We’ve always had reasons, usually some variation of wanting their possesion for ourselves.
And warning: This post contains sarcasm.
Are you British? This sick sarcastic humor is so British, and I love it!
Dudes in parts of Africa and the Middle East have already got it figured out. Djellabas look fantastic on most men. I’d love to see more people wearing them.
More like Robes than Dresses, maybe? Could start with some Indian or Middle Eastern fashions as a starting point…
Yeah, a men’s salwar kameez would make a damn good start, but I don’t want to limit it…
Love my khurta
That does involve pants though. I think something like a sarong is what they were referring to.
Consider: kilts.
A lot of Muslim men wear what appear to me to be long white skirts, especially in the middle east and north Africa where wearing a flowing, loose garment that reflects lots of light is a practical measure for staying cool. I think it’s called a Kandora?
My point is that such garments DO exist, they just aren’t common in the west because of western views of male gender norms and Islam.
Agreed! There are a few enterprising designers out there with cool menswear dresses, but it’s still super niche.
Got a link?
I’ve seen Billy Porter in a gown or two. I’d add a link but not sure how to do that in Voyager / wefwef yet.
You’re coming dangerously close to re-inventing the kilt
Bring back the kilt!
Always thought this guy was a boss!
The fucking SWAGGER. Thanks for sharing that, it made my day.
An inspiration, for sure!
I have 4 kilts and wear them to work when I want to, almost as a dare to management so I can retire off a lawsuit. Utilikilts and Verillas have great kilts with pockets for workin’ men that like a pretty skirt.
My boss made it very clear that while the pictures in our dress code handbook are of the general gender stereotypes, doesn’t mean we are holding people to that. As long as you are business casual it doesn’t matter how you represent.
I’m cool with pants. It’s one less thing to worry about, not having my crotch exposed or readily available.
Plus, if I fall, my legs are more protected
I may be in the minority on this, but I wear pants to work every day, even in the summer, and it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. I just like wearing my jeans, and if anything, I’ve gotten more flak from friends about not wearing shorts enough
Getting my kilt ready as we speak…
I agree. There should be a turn back to the robe-like garments that are used by everyone in certain cultures. It’s comfy and it looks regal as fuck. And with the heat waves we’ve been getting we are gonna have to adapt to our environment where we can
Honestly, one thing I hate about being biologically male is that men’s clothes all look so goddamn generic.
Oh, you’re wearing a suit. It’s. A suit. I guess. They all look the same.
You’re wearing jeans. And a t-shirt. And they all look basically the same.
Khakis and a polo? You madlad. Well, you and everybody else at the country club. Who all look exactly the fucking same.
The thing that really gets me is, it didn’t used to be this way. You look at pictures of people in paintings and whatnot and men had some wild shit going on. There was variety, if somewhat less, even into the early 20th. But… seriously tell me if I’m wrong here… it feels like we got to WWII and men’s fashion just stopped. Like an entire generation of men put on uniforms and eighty years later we still haven’t completely taken them off.
They don’t ALL look the same. It’s just that the stuff that actually looks non-generic are either super expensive or super uncomfortable.
Or, just bad. There’s nothing generic about Ed Hardy. Most people elect to look generic rather than be caught dead in that mess.
True that! I have some awesome looking denim pants, that are literally painted with colorful paint. I always get compliments from both men and women when I wear them. I also got them basically for free at the store, since no one were buying them.
But, they’re about as comfortable as you would expect denim pants painted with thick paint to be: stiff and scratchy.
or make you look like a stand user
What does this have to do with being biologically male?
Aren’t males born wearing cargo shorts and a blue polo?
Mainstream clothes for sure, but I feel the same way about mainstream women’s clothes. Waist high jeans, an inoffensively colored top and a vest or blazer. Switch out the jeans for beige linen pants in the summer. Yawn. If you want inspiration for some more interesting clothes in general but men in particular, you gotta look to non-mainstream subcultures. Especially ones that don’t give shit about gender. I hung out with hippies for years and men and women alike are dressed in cool, colorful and interesting clothes. Both genders wear pants, dresses, and skirts. It heavily inspired my style and believe me, I stand out a lot among other women. If you want more variety you have got to look further than what’s mainstream. Because that’ll always trend towards boring and basic.
Even mainstream clothes are better in the woman’s section. I was in Peacocks (fairly small cheap clothes shop - you can see most of what they’ve got by standing near the centre) and you can just tell where the men’s clothes are by the sea of dull, boring shades with not a single thing showing any sign of colour at all, like the brightness is turned down to 1 on the telly. The style differences are minimal. Even the material is just awful scratchy fabric for the most part. Look over to the woman’s section and it’s a sea of colour, many more different styles (not that many, as I said, this is a small cheap shop), and if you touch anything it’s instantly noticeable that the material is much better quality, softer. I don’t get woman who wear men’s clothes - why would you put yourself through that?
There is more variety for sure, but my point kinda was that most people, men and women, don’t really make full use of the variety there is. Almost everyone dresses kinda dull. Women have easier access to special and colorful clothes than men (although the latter can definitely find some if they look for it) and they do use it a slightly more but actually interesting clothing takes a little willingness to stand out that most people simply do not have. Maybe it’s different in other countries though - where I live conformity and not standing out is woven into every aspect of our culture.
Not sure about other places but most women around here wear clothes that are mostly the same as well it’s not exclusive to “masculine” clothes
Tbh, I just want to blend in… but of course be as pompous as you want!
That’s good IMO
I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. I think what we should do is learn how to sew. I already bought a sewing machine but I haven’t had time to learn how to use it. Hopefully I will be able to learn the basics in the few work-free days I will have in the summer. My point being, we (men) need to take fashion into our own hands and start designing what we want to wear.
I (woman) have been learning to sew for a while mostly due to the indignity of never having pockets unless I put them in myself. But I also took the plunge and made my husband a novelty Christmas shirt last year and honestly even though it seemed like it would be terrifying it was surprisingly straightforward! Now he can have all the ridiculous colorful shirts he wants.
Basically I’m saying yes, learn to sew, it’s bloody brilliant.
Thanks for sharing your story. Now I’m more excited to learn how to sew
I tried to use this argument with a boss during the summer, when she told me shorts weren’t “professional”… She didn’t bite when I pointed out the variety of “professional” female vs male attire, and that no summer male alternative to pants exists. I pointed out the skirt she was wearing during that scorching day as an example.
But I worked primarily in the field and none of my Clients nor their care facilities cared, so joke’s on her and I wore what I wanted anyway. Dressed in pants on days I went into the office or brought Clients to one of my (former) organization’s facilities.
But I am totally okay with this trade-off given that men’s clothes actually have pockets! I’ll sweat my balls off in exchange for functional pockets any day…
Pants are optional when entering my house however underwear is mandatory lol.
A lot of comments here are not wrong. Men’s clothing in general doesn’t have a lot of variety. 4 different colors of the same style shirt or more doesn’t count as variety. Look in a big box clothing store and you’ll see that the women’s section is almost always 2 to nearly 3x larger.
The women’s department has two full floors dedicated to it. The men’s has to share a floor with the children’s department and non-clothing items.
Look in a big box clothing store and you’ll see that the women’s section is almost always 2 to nearly 3x larger
What do they sell in the men’s section? Genuinely curious because as a man I never shop for clothes…
Years ago, I found a brand and model (yes, they have a model number) of pants that fit well and have lots of pockets. I have them in long/short, and black/blue/tan. I wear a uniform shirt at work (it’s totally optional, but about half the staff wear them and I find they puts me in “work mode” mentally). My partner buys my shirts, because she tolerates me owning half a dozen pairs of the same pants but will not tolerate it for shirts.
My fashion choices are my shoes, my watch, my glasses, my phone, and my haircut. All four are the same every day but every six months or so I change one. That’s enough for me. I think it’s incredibly freeing to not have to worry about what I look like every day.
Technology in pants has gotten so good that jeans which used to be uncomfortable have now gotten thin, stretchy, and soft while still looking the same
skirts and tunics were good enough for ancients, sure, but they had no bikes or OSHA
I’m a chemist, we’re basically glued to our jeans regardless of gender. Yes, summer is hell for us.
