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Cazwell, one of the few openly gay men in the rap game, recently made waves on social media when he wore the latest design by Hologram City, an L.A.-based label, during a new music video shoot. He sent the internet into a frenzy wearing a head-to-toe pastel lace outfit (alongside a handsome crew). The outcry about the photoshoot? Cazwell and his squad had broken some sort of fashion rule by wearing sheer lace shorts! *Gasp!* Immediately everyone began to debate: Are lace shorts the next big fashion trend for men, or is the look “too feminine” for guys to pull off?
People had a field day, chiming in with their own two cents about the look. While some had positive feedback, not everyone is on board with lace shorts for men.
If your man wears these it is time to trade her in for a real man.
— Pamela Wilson (@pamelagwilson) June 1, 2017
No…just no. Lace shorts for men are here whether you want them to be or not: https://t.co/mLlosRivaN
— Becca Feher (@BeccaFeher) June 3, 2017
From tights crop tops and now lace shorts for men ???. Mnaleta bra for men lini?? pic.twitter.com/cDWbzYfntJ
— Huey (@ReubenNyaribari) June 3, 2017
The new LACE SHORTS for MEN are totally see-through https://t.co/ZNPq0cVHoQ via @Femail Ew…No. Just No.
— Lil Mary Sunshine (@LilMarySonshine) June 3, 2017
Newsflash: Lace shorts for men are not a new trend.
In our not-particularly-humble opinion, everyone needs to calm down about what they’re calling a new trend. Just like RompHim, these lace shorts are no groundbreaking idea. Fashion houses from Gucci to Burberry have long used “traditionally feminine” fabrics like lace or satin in their menswear.
Popsugar notes that lace shorts were featured in the runway shows of Versace in 2013 and Gucci in 2015.
But these lace shorts are indicative of a quickly emerging trend in today’s fashion industry. From Raf Simons’ latest collections to the boundary-breaking fashion house Palomo Spain, designers are more and more often blurring the gender lines of both men’s and women’s clothing.
Simons, the master of minimalism, sent down male and female models wearing sheer sweaters and overcoats, pushing gender-neutral boundaries for his Calvin Klein 2017 fall/winter show. Palomo Spain, a newcomer to the fashion world, is on a mission to create the industry’s most beautiful gender-neutral pieces. It sets to challenge traditional gender rules in men’s clothing in ways as yet unseen.
Japan, always on the forefront of cutting-edge fashion, is no stranger to this gender-neutral idea either. The latest trend to come out of Japanese culture, Genderless Kei, is the perfect example of a new fashion world order. It’s about androgyny, and about rejecting the idea that clothes need to be gender-specific. Interestingly, most fans of this Genderless Kei movement are straight and cisgender.
Bottom line: Lace shorts for men aren’t for everyone, but what fashion is? (Cazwell and his crew pull them off quite nicely, we must say.) But it’s high time that people begin to forgo the burdensome chains of gender rules in what other people choose to wear.
Don’t like lace shorts? Don’t wear ’em. But please keep your borderline-homophobic and downright boring gender rules to yourself, because the world is passing you by.
