Three Shocking Female Fashions For Men

Fashion has always been differentiated along gender lines. We like males to appear to be males and females to appear to be females because it takes a great deal of thought out of social interaction. In the past, especially in recent history (think 1950's) it was very obvious what was male attire and what was female attire.

With women's lib, the lines blurred for women, they started to wear pants and jackets, they started cutting their hair short, and nowadays it is not uncommon for people to take a double take to see if a woman is indeed a woman.

Male fashion has not been so liberated thus far, but there are signs of some equality beginning to come into play. Check out these three predictions of so called 'female' fashions which are making their way, slowly but surely, into the realm of men's fashion.

Eyeliner

Eyeliner has been popularised for men by Johhny Depp, who wore a ton of the stuff in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and New Zealand Rugby player, Ma'a Nonu who allegedly wears the stuff to 'intimidate his opponents'. (I guess being built like a howitzer sometimes just isn't enough.)

Goth and emo types have been wearing eyeliner for years, and the creeping of this particular kind of make up into the mainstream seems imminent. Why? Well, because if applied sparingly, it is relatively subtle, but it has quite dramatic effects. For quite some time, people did not know if Ma'a Nonu was actually wearing eye make up, it took his own confirmation of the fact to cement the story.

Heels

As most men who wear 'women's' clothing already know, heels were originally designed for men, and were often worn in the French Royal court prior to everyone having their heads summarily lopped off during the French Revolution. The massacre was enough to make noble fashion fall out of style, and when it returned, women reclaimed heels as their own. Men are now left with secretive shoe lifts if they want to look taller, though the demand for heels is still strong amongst many sectors of the male population, and men's shoes with heels are beginning to creep in here and there. If you really must have one, there's always a cowboy boot, which has the advantage of being saturated in testosterone during the production process.

Dresses / Robes

Eddie Izzard can take a lot of credit for introducing dresses and cross dressing to a large mainstream audience. Clinger before him did his part too, although the slant on his cross dressing being intended to be representative of mental illness somewhat undermined the social acceptability of the phenomenon. Dresses were once a major part of a male's wardrobe, and robes are still worn by royalty and the priesthood of many different religions. It is only in recent years that men have been steered towards jeans, slacks and shirts as viable clothing choices. At one time, this sort of dress would have been indicative of being part of the lower classes, now all men are 'forced' to dress this way. Could dresses make a come back into male fashion? It's going to take some serious catwalk time from some major designers to pull that one off, but it could happen. I'm predicting that when it does, it will probably come in the form of long robe like garments, reminiscent of those worn in India and the Middle East.