Men are going to dress like women.
Not every man, of course, and probably not all at once. But the direction seems inevitable. The wall separating men’s clothing from women’s clothing has been crumbling for years, and the remaining bricks are becoming increasingly difficult to defend.
Women crossed that wall long ago. They adopted trousers, suits, neckties, work boots and nearly everything else once reserved for men. Today, nobody thinks twice when a woman shops in the men’s department or wears a tuxedo. She is simply choosing the clothing she likes.
Men have not been granted the same freedom. A man may wear almost anything—as long as it still looks sufficiently masculine. His shirts may become more colorful, his trousers tighter and his shoes more decorative, but the moment he reaches for a skirt, dress or pair of pumps, alarms begin sounding.
That double standard cannot last forever.
Fashion survives by finding something new to sell. After decades of changing lapels, hemlines, collars and trouser widths, menswear has very little unexplored territory left. Womenswear, however, offers an enormous wardrobe waiting to be introduced to men: skirts, dresses, hosiery, heels, handbags, jewelry and countless combinations of colors, fabrics and silhouettes.
Eventually, retailers will realize that there is money hanging in all those unexplored closets.
The change will probably happen gradually. Designers will not announce that men must begin wearing women’s clothes on Monday morning. Instead, they will borrow one feminine element at a time.
A tunic will become a dress. A kilt will become a skirt. A heeled boot will become a pump. A shoulder bag will become a purse. Cosmetics marketed as “grooming products” will quietly become makeup. Once men become comfortable with one step, fashion will invite them to take the next.
Young men are already growing up with fewer rigid ideas about which colors, fabrics and styles belong to which sex. They experiment with nail polish, jewelry, makeup and traditionally feminine clothing without necessarily questioning their identity. To them, a garment may simply be a garment.
The greatest obstacle is not practicality. In many cases, women’s clothing is no less practical than the neckties, stiff collars and polished dress shoes men have worn for generations. The true obstacle is fear—fear of ridicule, rejection and being considered insufficiently masculine.
But fear loses its power when enough people ignore it.
The first man wearing a skirt in an office will attract attention. The tenth will inspire conversation. The hundredth will barely be noticed. Eventually, someone will arrive in trousers and seem hopelessly old-fashioned.
Women may help accelerate the change. Many already encourage husbands, boyfriends and sons to dress more colorfully, take better care of their appearance and experiment with styles they would never choose alone. Once women discover that shopping with a man can include both sides of the store, the old clothing rules may disappear surprisingly quickly.
There will also be practical reasons for men to adopt more feminine wardrobes. Dresses are simple, comfortable and available in styles suitable for nearly every occasion. Skirts offer freedom of movement. Hosiery improves the appearance of the legs. Heels change posture and create a more graceful walk. Makeup conceals the same imperfections on a man’s face that it conceals on a woman’s.
And when men begin wearing dresses regularly, they will want those dresses to fit properly. Shapewear, padded undergarments and even cosmetic procedures may follow. What begins as a fashion change could eventually influence the masculine silhouette itself.
At first, manufacturers will probably create carefully labeled “skirts for men” and “male makeup.” Those reassuring labels will help cautious customers cross the aisle. But eventually, the labels will become unnecessary. Clothing departments may be organized by garment, size and style rather than by sex.
The most amusing part is that future generations may wonder why any of this was controversial. They may look at photographs of uniformly trousered men and ask why males once denied themselves so much variety.
Men dressing like women will not mean that men have become women. It will mean that society has finally stopped pretending femininity belongs exclusively to females.
The feminine wardrobe is too attractive, too varied and too commercially valuable to remain off-limits to half the population forever. The transformation may take ten years, twenty years or longer, but the destination is becoming easier to see.
The future is coming and it looks fabulous in a dress.
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