Two years ago we asked whether menswear was the queerest it’s ever been, pointing to a soft boi flamboyance that seemed to colour the runway, but questioning whether this would actually make its way to the everyman’s wardrobe. Overall, it didn’t, with ruffles, dresses and pearls on men generally remaining the preserve of twinks, androgynous and femme-presenting queer people, and the odd floppy-haired celebrity (Harry Styles, Timothée Chalamet, etc). This isn’t surprising; your dad wasn’t going to start wearing a Craghoppers halter top, filtered down from Timothée’s Haider Ackermann look at Venice. But in the past two years fashion has been embracing an increasingly slutty aesthetic, from mini skirts that embody the “is that a skirt or a belt?” reprimands of disapproving parents, to naked dresses that send the internet into meltdown.
This sluttiness has become increasingly prominent in menswear, too. Ludovic de Saint Sernin is a case in point, with his latest collection — titled LUST, a literal anagram for… well, you know what — filled with lace-up briefs, silky, skimpy loungewear and bondage-inspired jewellery. Elsewhere, we’ve seen flashes of nipple and chaps detailing at Courrèges, skimpy speedos at Burberry and Saul Nash, and even penis tees from J.W. Anderson and Willy Vanderperre’s shameless willy cap.
Of course, this liberated turn in men’s wardrobing didn’t happen over night. An energy of rebellion and protest amongst young people that proliferated the 60s in response to conservatism made its way into menswear too, spawning a sharp rise in sexy new styles for men in the following decades, from form-fitting boxer brief underwear to ab-revealing crop tops and skin tight jeans. Sexually-ambiguous pop acts such as David Bowie, Prince and Freddie Mercury were celebrated for their rebelliously fun, flirtatious and often homoerotic expression in skin-tight jumpsuits (and boners) in music videos, low-cut vests and ass-revealing trousers. Designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Giorgio Armani and Helmut Lang all began sending more liberated, explicitly thirsty menswear down the runways while Tom Ford’s infamous Gucci campaigns verged on pornographic.
The focus of this idea of sexiness, though, was less on the clothes, and more on Adonis-like physiques they clad, with this appetite reaching its peak across the 90s and 00s, as attested by those Mark Wahlberg CK ads and shirtless varsity dudes outside Abercrombie and Fitch stores. As the mid-2010s saw an increased interest in unisex fashion and traditional masculinity went under the magnifying glass in the wake of the #metoo movement, the worshipping of himbo bodies and jock culture fell, briefly, by the wayside.
However, crossing paths with the current Y2K resurgence, this strapping vision of masculinity made a strapping resurgence on the SS24 menswear runways. Though the exploration of hypermasculinity in fashion has always had a homoerotic inflection, what we saw here seemed a little more knowing — a little less 00s himbo party boys unaware that the buxom lady who just pulled up to chat is scouting them for Bait Bus, and a little more Essex lad Jack in season two of The White Lotus; or these guys.
Brazen as that may seem, it actually resulted in a pretty nuanced examination of the status — and sexiness — of hypermasculinity in 2023. DSquared2 has often purveyed an overtly sexualised aesthetic and their latest collection explored the increasingly liberated general perception of male sex workers in an age of OnlyFans and internet porn. In an uber-homoerotic collection, men in crop tops over washboard abs and accentuated v-lines kissed their bulging upper arms and ripped off their baggy jeans as if they were cosplaying Channing Tatum in Magic Mike. Others in low-cut briefs with “pay guy” written across their butt nodded to the gay-for-pay muscle men making videos from sunny resorts promoting their NSFW content through highkey cringe, lowkey hot videos on Twitter. Eighties gym jocks had rhinestone lips on the waistband and two lads in football socks and boots wore nothing else but white boxers branded with “Siffredi’s Hard Academy”, a reference to a sleazy 2016 TV show about a porn university hosted by hardcore porn superstar Rocco Siffredi (who also walked the show).
Elsewhere, Martine Rose had seedy-looking, hyper-masc models wearing thin, lace lingerie-esque vests that emphasised their pecs, and boxer shorts cut higher than most, while GOOMHEO’s almost-briefs-length leather shorts and denim vests were shown on, as the press release reads, “grungy beefcakes with a penchant for big boys’ toys”. Short shorts made an appearance at Jordanluca, too, with horizontal zippers at the crotch that, when open, turned the fly into a gaping, toothy mouth, and Ken Doll-esque vests came in nearly-sheer white cotton or botanical mesh, both the ideal fit for a circuit party.
Courrèges had models in leather trousers and leather armbands — as if lifted from a Tom of Finland tableau — with sheer bodysuits, or in jeans and a white tee reminiscent of Freddie Mercury’s very-Americana Live Aid look. Fendi SS24 had male models wearing bikini-cut polo bodysuits, halter shirts or little more than workwear smocks filled with tools, looking like those sensual pottery boys spanking and fisting clay on TikTok. Then there was Institut Français de la Mode student Jiawei Han, who sent a model in a naked suit down the runway, the skin-toned blazer and trousers featuring grotesquely engorged, veiny muscles, an inhuman number of abs and a sexless Ken doll crotch.
Perhaps these looks are more likely to filter down to the masses than the more flamboyant menswear looks seen in previous seasons. We’ve seen the likes of Paul Mescal, Harry Styles and Milo Ventimiglia embrace three-inch inseam shorts, while masc mavericks such as Charlie Puth, Michael Cimino and Penn Badgeley have increasingly been posting thirst traps in underwear or grey sweatpants, and even foot pics. Indeed, it would appear that, after a period in which traditional expressions of masculinity have come under scrutiny, masculine men are looking for new ways to express their sexuality.
From DSquared2’s x-rated exploration of the changing social status of male sex workers to Martine Rose’s softening of masculine stereotypes and Jiawei Han’s aggressive emphasising of them — to the point of absurdity — fashion designers are exploring this real-time redefining of masculinity and what it may look like.
This exploration of masc-but-slutty fashion isn’t necessarily a bad thing, nor does it come at the expense of more femme or androgynous articulations of menswear. The himbo is finding their own sexually-empowered style, one which is being mainly defined by queer designers. These masc boys are not villains after all. They’re learning to be comfortable in their sexuality, even if they still leave a urinal between them and the next person peeing. They borrowed a discrete pink accessory to wear to the Barbie screening and even admit to crying during it. And yes, they listen to Harry Styles too.
