Do men’s skirts have a future in real life?

The new dress.

It’s hard to miss. He was everywhere on the 2023-2024 fall-winter catwalks. From big names in luxury to young avant-garde designers, everyone has put the men’s skirt in the spotlight. At Dior, Gucci, Kenzo, Courrèges, Marine Serre and Givenchy, it stands out solo, with pants, short, denim, wool, grunge or in a neo-sartorialist spirit. After pink, sheer, floral print or a tight top, could the skirt be the ultimate avatar of genderless fashion, this now-mainstream trend that breaks free from the male-female binary? “Men’s skirts are seen more as an extension of tailoring this season,” says Thomas Zilbermann, stylist and trendsetter at the Carlin International style office. Worn over trousers as if it were a new three-piece suit or styled with a gray flannel jacket, it remains in the masculine lexicon.” However, this “generally feminine” clothing, as Larousse defines it, is the highlight of the season’s menswear ready-to-wear.

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New York Magazine at the end of December 2022 The Cut: had already announced that the year was the year of the man in the skirt. A question still arises. “How hot is a trend if only a few people, within a certain handful of space, can make it their own?” Areas in question: Especially red carpets, where fashionable actors began to boldly fill no gender (we all mean Timothee Chalamet baring his bare back at the 2022 Venice Film Festival). As for the skirt, actor Billy Porter was one of the first in 2019 to climb the stairs of the Oscars with Christian Siriano’s model. The following year, singer Harry Styles also broke genre dictates by posing on the cover; Vogue: The American in a Gucci dress, and in 2022, Brad Pitt appeared in a cape with bare legs in Berlin during the premiere of the film. Bullet Train:.

Social media broker

The others safe areas. social networks. Mark Bryan, a 62-year-old civil engineer and grandfather of four, likes to incorporate a skirt and heels into his everyday wardrobe, as he demonstrates on Instagram. Gen Z was not left out. behind their smartphone screens, TikTokers pose in Y2K-inspired pleated skirts, like Britney Spears in a music video. Dear one more time. The hashtag “Boysinkirt” has 286 million views, we cannot talk about a micro-phenomenon. But what about in real life? Is this part attributed to the female gender visible in men’s daily lives? Vincent, a coach, has been working at a private school in Paris for three years. In June 2023, after the thermometer had exceeded 30°C for several days, she arrived at the facility wearing a long blue and white printed skirt. The deputy director calls him. “Sir, I will ask you to leave.” The reason for his release was provocation by inappropriate clothing.

I love the feeling of freedom that the skirt gives, the air passing between my legs

Jeremy, press officer

Jeremy, a 30-year-old press officer, has been wearing Comme des Garcons skirts for a year. “I didn’t accept it, then I started diving. But, working in the fashion industry, I think that people’s view is different. I love the feeling of freedom that the skirt gives me, the air passing between my legs. However, I notice that some people point at me while laughing. However, this does not take away from my masculinity. Besides, I like my bride in a skirt. On the other hand, my friends sometimes tell you not to wear “my girl” when you go out with them, he continues amusedly. For them, skirts are the opposite of masculinity.’ Same story from Helmut, a community leader, heterosexual, for whom skirts are a style exercise. She often wears Marni’s signature floral ball gown for Uniqlo. “I don’t wear it out of activism, but because I’m a fashionista,” she says. In Korea or Japan, for example, it is not a topic. But here we feel that the skirt is a matter of debate. Open-mindedness is not yet there. When I walk in Murray, it’s fine, but in Bagnole, where I live, I see people looking at me in surprise. For what ? Women wear pants well.”

An ancient bypass for a modern advancement

Is the men’s skirt just a catwalk fantasy promoted only on TikTok or Instagram and by fashion designers? Thomas Zilberman gives an explanation. “When a man wears it, it’s an event, a gesture, for a very small segment of the population who are interested in fashion or who work in this industry. For others, it continues to be assimilated into folklore (Scottish clothing) or the rebellious claims of a designer such as Jean Paul Gaultier, who pioneered the kilt for men in the 1980s. Another issue raised. where to buy skirts for men “An ordinary citizen who wants to get one will not even know where to go,” continues Thomas Zilberman. They present only luxury brands in their collections. Affordable brands or big fashion brands don’t offer them.”

With socks?

The last concern is how to wear it when you’re a man. Cover with socks? Long to hide his hairy legs. It has no corresponding models. In the West, or rather, because in other continents, in other cultures, it is perceived differently, especially in Asia or the Middle East, where cloaks, sarongs and dellabas are attributed to the male gender. “However, the skirt has not always been gendered in our regions,” analyzes Julien Baulou, professor of fashion history at the French Fashion Institute. In ancient Greece and Rome, the short chiton, ending in a pleated skirt at the bottom, was worn mostly by men. And until the Middle Ages the construction of the garment, a kind of open tunic, was the same for both sexes. It wasn’t until the Renaissance that the skirt moved into a woman’s wardrobe.”

A movement that was established more strongly by the French Revolution and the 19th century^e century. The victorious age of Puritanism would make men and women as gendered as possible. We put the latter in the straps of clothes (crinoline, skirt, etc.), and the gentlemen in practice (trousers) for better movement. Today, if the so-called weaker sex has been able to develop on this topic, men remain cautious when it comes to the boundaries of their wardrobe.

For what ? “Their relationship with the body is more complicated,” analyzes Julien Baulou. Getting them to wear clothes that might reveal their legs and possibly anatomy isn’t the easiest thing to do. Women have been dressed, undressed, undressed, objectified, fetishized, and we find few counterexamples in men. Only Gautier played with the male subject, but remaining within a gay male referent, portraying a vitality unprecedented for his time.” So, is it possible to see men in skirts on the subway, in restaurants or in the office one day? “New generations will probably change this state of mind,” concludes Julien Baulou. But the road to get there will certainly be difficult.”

In the video: Robbie Williams in a skirt from the Emporio Armani show