Modern menswear is gravitating towards incorporating newer, bolder silhouettes
Recently, Brad Pitt made headlines for wearing a loose brown linen skirt while promoting his new movie Bullet Train in Berlin. But he’s certainly not the first man to be spotted in a skirt. This year itself we’ve seen some of the biggest names in pop culture rocking skirts, namely Oscar Isaac wearing a pleated skirt on the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival and ASAP Rocky donning a pleated skirt over a pair of trousers, like Travis Scott did in Thome Browne for the MET Gala earlier this year, or the pleated leather Givenchy skirt over matching leather pants that Kanye West sported at the Sandy Benefit concert back in December 2012. Type in #meninskirts on Instagram and you’ll find more than 28,000 images of guys wearing skirts casually on a regular day. Whether worn with a suit or paired with streetwear, the new menswear skirt is here to erase the sharp lines of gender division.
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At the MET Gala this year, Travis Scott wore a pleated skirt by Thome Browne
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Jean-Paul Gaultier showcased men wearing skirts in his 2002 couture collection. Image: Vogue.com
Not quite a recent trend
Despite the recent popularity, skirts in menswear is not a completely new phenomenon. Celebrity stylist Isha Bhansali points out that traditionally there were many costumes incorporating skirts as a part of a man’s attire. “Scotland is the first country that will come to our minds, thanks to their kilts. But over the years, men started wearing more pants because they actually became part of the working force, which is why skirts were completely forgotten in a man’s wardrobe. But every now and then they keep coming back,” says Bhansali, who has styled Ayushmann Khuranna and Irrfan Khan in outfits resembling skirts.
For years, designers have been showcasing men in skirts on the runway; Jean-Paul Gaultier did it in his 2002 couture collection, followed by Vivienne Westwood, Marc Jacobs, Rick Owens, Givenchy (under Riccardo Tisci’s reign) and most recently, Thom Browne. Global fashion search site Lyst reported that a Thom Browne menswear skirt was one of the top-searched items of 2021, marking the first time the silhouette has been on the site’s top trends for men. According to the same report, page views and searches for ‘wedding skirts’ spiked up to 26 per cent after Dan Levy got married in a skirt in the season finale of television show Schitt’s Creek.
“FASHION IS TRYING TO BE MUCH MORE INCLUSIVE AND A PART OF IT IS ALSO EMBRACING A MORE GENDER-NEUTRAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS CLOTHING."
Rin Jajo
Since then, we’ve seen celebrities such as Kanye West, Harry Styles, Bad Bunny and Billy Porter flaunt skirts on the red carpet, for magazine covers and in music videos. In India, designers like Arjun Saluja and Ujjwal Dubey have reinvented the silhouette of a skirt by incorporating it into menswear in the form of drape-y pants and wide trousers. More recently, we’ve seen Sumiran Kabir Sharma break away from rigid gender norms to create free-flowing pieces of clothing, suited for anyone, regardless of their pronouns.
Skirting with gender fluidity
In India, while men are gradually getting over the idea of toxic masculinity and welcoming the hybrid masculine-feminine tropes of dressing, Bhansali believes that it doesn’t have to be either feminine or masculine when it comes to dressing up. “We’ve seen Harry Styles looking cool in skirts and dresses, despite being in touch with his masculine side. Even Brad Pitt looked so macho when he wore that skirt on the red carpet,” she points out.
Traditionally, skirts, in some form or the other, have always been a part of every man’s wardrobe, such as in the form of lungis, which can be categorised as wrap skirts. In Bollywood, we’ve seen Ranveer Singh don a pinstriped skirt by designer Rajesh Pratap Singh at an awards show in 2017. Since then, we’ve frequently seen Singh break the gendered stereotypes of dressing up.
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Actor Oscar Isaac in a grey pleated skirt on the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival
Stylist and creative director Rin Jajo believes that people are finally embracing gender-neutrality when it comes to clothing. “Fashion is trying to be much more inclusive and a part of it is also embracing a more gender-neutral attitude towards clothing. Seeing global celebrities wearing skirts has made it more acceptable. Also, I think a lot of heteronormative and cis-gender attitudes have become increasingly redundant now,” says Jajo. Content creator, influencer and model Aman Pal agrees with Jajo and credits the LGBTQI+ community for bringing about this change. “We are seeing more and more men wear skirts now because of people from the community who are the actual trendsetters. Hybrid fashion has always been very prevalent, it’s just that our voice is much more relevant and visible now,” says Pal.
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Ayushmann Khuranna wore a pair of wrap pants which had an extra layer of fabric on top, making it look like a skirt
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"Hybrid fashion has always been very prevalent," says Aman Pal, wearing his mother's lehenga in this image
How to style skirts
If you’re a man and hesitant about this trend, then Bhansali has a solution to ease you into wearing a skirt and making it look cool. “The idea is similar to incorporating skirt-like silhouettes. It’s what I did with my client, Ayushmann Khuranna, where I gave him wrap pants which had an extra layer of fabric on top, making it look like a skirt. With Irrfan Khan though, I gave him a circular kurta which looked like a skirt itself, with a churidar underneath. It’s easy to incorporate this kind of silhouette in traditional wear, where it can look absolutely masculine (if that’s your concern) while making you look royal and cool.”
Jajo agrees with Bhansali, although he’d prefer to see a more casual version of it on men more often. “I’d love to see it worn with a shirt or a T-shirt in versions like the ‘skort,’ which is a hybrid version of a skirt and shorts,” says Jajo. Pal, on the other hand, who has even worn his mother’s lehenga, believes it’s all about experimenting with your style while being true to yourself. “With something like wearing a skirt, it’s a fashionable statement that you’re making. It’s a way to decorate your personality. But in the end, it’s a free world; you can do whatever you want and wear whatever you’d like to. It's all about loving myself and being confident in any piece of garment,” he concludes.
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