Men's crop tops are making a comeback from the 80's -- will the trend stick? | Covering the Intersections of Race, Culture, Sexuality, and Fashion | 48min Men's crop tops are making a comeback from the 80's -- will the trend stick? | Covering the Intersections of Race, Culture, Sexuality, and Fashion | 48min

Men’s crop tops are making a comeback from the 80’s — will the trend stick?

Back in the early and mid-eighties, there was a serious trend where (straight) men took to wearing crop tops, half shirts and cropped jerseys and sweatshirts that exposed their navals. With our rigid gender rules and expectations of men, not everyone took to the fashion fad, but it was more widespread than just trendy clubs in New York City and leather scenes in the gay community. It was big enough that there were a more than a handful of mainstream men wearing crop tops in popular movies in the 1980s.

Just a small sample include: Carl Weathers rocking a cutoff crop top (Apollo Creed) in Rocky III, Bill Preston’s (Ted) skater-style cropped sweatshirt in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and Johnny Depp’s lounging in a cutoff football jersey in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Expect a Bigger Comeback for Cropped Tops for Males

As with a lot of the 80;s fashions that came full circle, so has the crop top, but will it have a broader appeal this time around? We’re not fooling ourselves that we’ll we be seeing fraternity bros rocking a crop top that exposes their bellies.

That said, as the fashion world gets more and more comfortable with androgynous styles and heterosexual men more aware of how they present themselves in person and on social media, we expect the crop top to have wider appeal this time around. If only women liked guys in crop tops as much as these two:

With Jaden Smith and Kid Cudi already baring their midriff, Justin Bieber exposing his abs on the beach, as well as NFL player Ezekiel Elliott, we can see more fashion-forward celebrities pushing those boundaries. Not just that, but  in the last couple yeas the trend has been covered by media like Teen Vogue, BuzzFeed (twice), Bossip, Yahoo, and Mic.

Male Crop Tops: An Easy Way to Update Your Old Pieces

We’re excited to see that cropped men’s clothing is slowly making a comeback. Now whether that’s because we’ve already covered baggier, tighter and longer trends and there’s no where else to go but up, or because it’s a dope and sexy look, we don’t care. We’re just happy to see it cropping up on dudes of any sexuality.

The thing about it is unless you have the money, mens’ crop tops styles are usually created by higher-end designers more on the edge of fashion, so finding where you can buy mens crop tops might be difficult until it becomes more accessible (and affordable)

The great thing about the male cropped trend is that it’s one of those trends that you can easily update your wardrobe for. And you don’t need to have the skills other than using scissors. Shirts and tops that you considered selling or donating can be refreshed simply by taking fabric scissors (don’t use regular scissors) to them and cropping them. Not just that, if there’s a top that has a design or pattern you enjoy, but not necessarily the cut, well, you can crop it so it’s on-trend. Don’t just limit yourself to t-shirts, but we’re thinking crop top hoodies, cropped basketball jerseys, and dress shirts that expose the midriff.

For more dudes in crop top styles, go to this tumbler.

One Comment

  • pssssssst commented on November 28, 2019 Reply

    why are y´all up our fucking generation´s arse

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