Friday November 06, 2009 at 5:01

As legwear gets tighter from decade to decade, from 501’s to drainpipes, “meggings” seem to be the next logical step. Of course, like there were (and still are) detractors when guys started wearing skinny jeans, there will be riots in the streets before men can acceptably wear leggings. Either they’ll get taken up as the next step in fashion, or there’ll be a backlash to the androgyny that sees us return to fitted jeans, hairy chests and big beards. Frankly, I’m in a pretty good position to go either way. At least with the lumberjack look, I won’t have to throw out all my plaid. I have yet to see valid criticism of men in leggings. Much of it is laden with veiled homophobia, actually. In general, I’ve found homophobics to be quite unfashionable, so I have to question how much importance we can place on such critique. There is the matter of subjective taste, the “guys just don’t look good in leggings”. Listen, I have better-defined legs than most of the girls I know. Sometimes when I sit in the spa, I like to kick my feet up and pretend they belong to those of a particularly sexy woman. Admittedly the body hair interferes with the fantasy, but hopefully you comprehend my point regardless: I have fucking hot legs, and thus, a really good reason to wear leggings. There’s no doubt that fashion is cyclical. Guys were wearing leggings back in, what, the 1400s? Just wait, in a few hundred years from now, people will be freaking out about aviator sunglasses and Fidel caps. Personally, I can’t wait until swashbuckler-chic is back in. Finally, I’ll have a reason to don this puffy shirt in public.

As legwear gets tighter from decade to decade, from 501’s to drainpipes, “meggings” seem to be the next logical step. Of course, like there were (and still are) detractors when guys started wearing skinny jeans, there will be riots in the streets before men can acceptably wear leggings. Either they’ll get taken up as the next step in fashion, or there’ll be a backlash to the androgyny that sees us return to fitted jeans, hairy chests and big beards. Frankly, I’m in a pretty good position to go either way. At least with the lumberjack look, I won’t have to throw out all my plaid.


I have yet to see valid criticism of men in leggings. Much of it is laden with veiled homophobia, actually. In general, I’ve found homophobics to be quite unfashionable, so I have to question how much importance we can place on such critique. There is the matter of subjective taste, the “guys just don’t look good in leggings”. Listen, I have better-defined legs than most of the girls I know. Sometimes when I sit in the spa, I like to kick my feet up and pretend they belong to those of a particularly sexy woman. Admittedly the body hair interferes with the fantasy, but hopefully you comprehend my point regardless: I have fucking hot legs, and thus, a really good reason to wear leggings.


There’s no doubt that fashion is cyclical. Guys were wearing leggings back in, what, the 1400s? Just wait, in a few hundred years from now, people will be freaking out about aviator sunglasses and Fidel caps. Personally, I can’t wait until swashbuckler-chic is back in. Finally, I’ll have a reason to don this puffy shirt in public.

  1. jakec posted this