Imagine, you’re in the 80s. The men are listening to heavy metal, driving around in muscle cars, and… wearing crop tops? Yes, you heard me right, crop tops! The 80s were a super experimental age for fashion, tons of movies and TV shows showed celebrity heartthrobs flashing a bit of skin in super cropped shirts and tank tops. It was actually super common for men to DIY their shirts and football jerseys in the cropped style girls nowadays love to wear.
Just to name a few examples, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (a personal favorite), Bruce Jenner in Can’t Stop the Music, and Apollo Creed from the Rocky films all sported the killer trend.
So what changed? Rigid gender rules and male expectations that surrounded the male gender took precedence and the fad died real quick. However, they have popped up in fashion a few times since dying out. Orley showed the male crop tops back in 2015 and 2016 and London designer, JW Anderson, as well as Versace’s Versus collection sent crop tops down the runway.
Back in August, ASOS released a SUPER cropped vest targeted towards men in their “reclaimed vintage inspired collection” and the internet went insane. People had mixed feelings towards it, but more recently celebrity men like Kid Cudi and Ezekiel Elliott have bared their bellies in public and embraced the look.
Breaking gender stereotypes and wearing androgynous/ unisex clothing has shown to be super trendy for the upcoming 2019 seasons, so will the male crop tops be making a comeback for the spring? We sure hope so!