The Clothes Make the Man

Gone are the days when you can curl up in your boyfriend’s well-worn sweatpants and favorite t-shirt. According to fashion experts, you’ll soon be curling up in his designer suit. That’s right, it seems that men are actually shopping for more than video games and Superbowl snacks–they’re actually buying clothes.

I knew I was in trouble when my ex-boyfriend, a hairy, beer-guzzling, sweats-wearing, man’s man, couldn’t shut up about the amazing sales at Macy’s last week. Sweaters and blazers and silk ties, oh my!

“It’s that post-’metrosexual’ generation. They read Men’s Vogue or Details, and it’s not considered ‘gay’ to be interested in fashion,” Michael Macko, vice president and men’s fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue told the International Herald Tribune. “Going shopping with a girlfriend is an activity like going to the movies.”

And they’re not taking cues from their fathers either—they’re looking to our favorite red-carpet men like Brad Pitt and Justin Timberlake for style advice, opting for “shorter, more tightly fitted jackets; narrower lapels and skinnier pants without pleats.”

I’m all for men cleaning up a bit, I am. It’s nice when your man manages to put on a button-down and run a comb through his hair when you’ve spent an hour getting ready for dinner. And I appreciate that they might give themselves a second glance in the mirror to make sure their ties aren’t crooked, after I’ve had an ongoing email discussion with my best friend and my best gay about whether I should go with my high heels or my mid high heels. But do I want my boyfriend (my hypothetical boyfriend, at the moment) looking better than me? Getting approving looks as we talk through Chelsea? Whistles from construction workers? Not so much, no.

This article raises other concerns—that it seems that men are going for the skinny-suit look, which on a normal-sized man, is really the equivalent of low-rise jeans and a tube top on a full-figured gal. A tragic look, indeed.

So is the fashion industry coming after our men now too? Will men feel the same pressure we do to fit into the clothes made for a whole 2% of the population that has the “right” proportions? Can’t say I’d mind the company. Welcome aboard, gentlemen.