Not Just a Trend: Men Wearing Skirts, Past and Present

Writer and researcher Ekemini Ekpo recently put out a fantastic essay in Articles of Interest called “Boy-Skirts for One, Boy-Skirts for All.” She shows how the current Western fascination with men in skirts is really just a late entry in a much older global story: kilts in Scotland, lap-laps in Australia, wrappers in Nigeria, sarongs, lungis, and more.

“for a lot of people across time and space, skirts have always been men’s clothing. They just don’t call it a ‘skirt.’”

Ekpo gets into how the 18th-century “Great Masculine Renunciation” made men’s wardrobes deliberately dull, while women’s clothing diverged into the impractical or ornamental. That idea of clothing being ‘frivolous’ ended up being applied not only to women but also to “nonwhite, non-western, and non-heteronormative men, all of whom were less likely to dress in linear monochrome.”

The essay also shifts focus away from celebrity moments to everyday wear:

“I don’t put too much stock in Harry Styles or Bad Bunny donning a skirt for a paparazzo’s benefit. I think there’s something to be said about the skirts I encounter as I go about my devastatingly unremarkable day.”

A small critique: the essay leans on the term ‘boy-skirt.’ It might echo trendy hashtags like #boysinskirts, but the wording can also feel a bit infantilizing. At the same time, Ekpo imagines a future where we don’t need labels like this at all.

You can read the full essay on Articles of Interest here.