Home International News FASHION TREND | When did straight men stop wearing crop tops?

FASHION TREND | When did straight men stop wearing crop tops?

In years gone by, men like Will Smith, Mark Wahlberg and other icons wore navel shirts, but what has changed?

From time to time, your news bear posts interesting things on its timeline. For example, last Pride saw a mini-revival of the crop top, partly because fast-fashion stores advertised the garment a lot – as did short shorts and everything covered with glitter.

Many media outlets have spotted this striking fashion trend during Men’s Fashion Week.

The crop top for men….YES or NO?

While women are treated to a fashion week several times a year, fashion-loving men have to make do with twice a year. Fortunately, the designers seem to take this into account: they do everything they can to predict the trends of the coming seasons, and they show spectacular collections

One of the creations I saw was that of ASOS, in which a male model wears a neon green crop top. My finger hovered over the ‘like or unlike’ button. I knew I wanted to read, but also knew that I would gloat and my morning mood is unparalleled.

In addition to my reaction, there were of course plenty of reactions that formed a cesspool of misogyny, homophobia and transphobia.

The idea that a man in a crop top is gay, still in the closet or at least has to be feminine is almost ironic. The origin of the garment lies in one of the most hyper-masculine activities of all time: American football.

It sounds like the beginning of a bad gay porn movie, but American football players’ jerseys were continuously ripped by other players during games, exposing torsos and abs. That accidental exposing sparked a trend in the early 1980s where players purposely cut up their jerseys to show off their stone-carved bodies.

When Kid Cudi took the stage with his belly bare in 2014, he did so at a festival known for his unconventional, slightly controversial outfits. Ezekiel Elliott’s tribute to Prince was more about protesting the NCAA’s T-shirt roll-up ban than the crop top itself. When Zac Efron wore a crop top in the 2016 movie Dirty Grandpa and Will Ferrell in 2011 on SNL, they did it for comedic effect. Straight people may be wearing crop tops in public again, but it’s far from normalized.

The crop top is worn to shock, have fun or laugh. The crop top – like many other clothes – still suffers from certain ideas about gender and orientation.

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