The most famous men in the world are also really pushing for it. Harry Styles wore a skirt as part of his American Vogue magazine cover shoot at the tail end of 2020. Brad Pitt wore one on his Bullet Train press trail last year. Robert Pattinson, who has traditionally been a man of masculine tailoring, showed off his legs in a skort (skirt-short mash-up) at the Dior show in December. Lil Nas X wore one, not for the first time, at a Versace show in Los Angeles this week. Oscar Isaac, too, has got leggy in a pleated skirt, schoolgirl style. Dan Levy wore a Thom Browne skirt suit to the Emmys. Young Thug wears men's skirts all the time. Rocky too. Kid Cudi slays in them. On TikTok the hashtag #boysinskirts has been viewed over 280 million times.
On catwalks, designers have been endorsing men's skirts for the best part of fifty years, but it was usually left to the more experimental and left-field fashion houses: Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, Yohji Yamamoto, Marc Jacobs, Raf Simons et al. For a long time, only the most adventurous of men, largely of the LGBTQ+ community, followed suit. But past fashion weeks have presented some new entrants in the men’s skirt playbook, cementing its staying power. Dior put models in wool skirts, cut above the knee and paired with jumbo knits. Elsewhere Gucci, which under the helm of Alessandro Michele pushed masc skirts for eight years, has continued to do so without the designer. Floor-sweeping, grungified, plaid numbers were given an edge by way of beanie hats and ultra-thin Cobain-style knits back in January. Virgil Abloh made it one of his many missions at Louis Vuitton to get men in pleated tunics.
Egonlab, one of the buzziest brands to come out of Paris in recent years (Styles wears it, we love it) put models in mini skirts cut from denim and Prince of Wales checked wool. Martine Rose, London's designer provocateur, opened Pitti Uomo and the ensuing 2023 roster of shows, with guys in floor-length skirts, setting the tone for the rest of the men's shows. Ludovic Saint Sernin, the French designer dressing Dua Lipa and Troye Sivan, has long been shouting for men to wear skimpy skirts. Even Etro, a 55-year-old brand famous for its paisley blazers, sent men in skirts down the catwalk for its Autumn/Winter 2023 show. Retailers, meanwhile, have followed suit: Ssense and Mr Porter both stock skirts for men.
