Feminising The Male Wardrobe

[Shyheels]

There’s a men’s fashion Instagram account that keeps popping up in my feed and it’s rather interesting. Yesterday they had a post about men’s fashions becoming more feminine - specifically mentioning skinny jeans. The chap whose account it’s, and who deals in bespoke suits, was very much against this. I posted a comment saying that I thought it was time to lighten up, allow men the same degree of freedom, fun and theatricality women took for granted. I was pleasantly surprised to have 75 (and counting) likes and only one (polite) disagreement 

[Cali]

Having worn my skinny jeans with my JS knee yesterday and skyscraper jeans with mules today, yes, we should have the same freedom; and I'm taking it.

[Shyheels]

I ordered myself another two pair of skinny jeans yesterday, to wear with my knee and OTK boots. I noticed my comment on the post now has over 130 likes and several supportive comments as well and still only the one polite disagreement. It's encouraging.

[CrushedVamp]

On 4/5/2025 at 2:04 AM, Shyheels said:

I ordered myself another two pair of skinny jeans yesterday, to wear with my knee and OTK boots. I noticed my comment on the post now has over 130 likes and several supportive comments as well and still only the one polite disagreement. It's encouraging.

Good for you!

No matter the gender, I am just glad to see when people dress nicely. What that entails is subjective of course, but when I see anyone, of any gender; dress sharp, it is impressive, and often times the bolder they are, the more I am impressed. Overall its just a dislike of mine for todays dress like a slob attitude that seems to permeate fashion.

My daughter now wears Bear Jeans. I call them that because every time she wears them I ask her if she needs her AR-15 to take out the bear that attacked her and shredded her jeans to nothing but gaping holes...

I was looking at getting my wife another ankle bracelet the other day and got sidetracked on a blog post where the woman railed against ankle bracelets pretty much just saying they should be worn at the beach. IN reading the comments below her post however people slammed her for being so close-minded. Some of her points were that they should not be worn by anyone over the age 40, and NEVER to work and got hounded for saying as much. Kind of like how people supported you in your skinny jean post.

Again, good for you, and I am glad you got so many likes.

[Shyheels]

I don’t understand the torn jeans thing. The holes in them would just annoy me constantly. Living in a canal boat one dresses more for practicality than style. There is also a very definite boho vibe among water dwellers, which suits me fine. 

[pebblesf]

2 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I don’t understand the torn jeans thing. The holes in them would just annoy me constantly. Living in a canal boat one dresses more for practicality than style. There is also a very definite boho vibe among water dwellers, which suits me fine. 

Yeah, I don't get it either...  I know I usually get rid of my jeans when they start to rip, very annoying....  This is just another fad that people pay alot for, that will fade with time..

[Cali]

When I was younger and my jeans started to tear, my mother would put a patch in them. When they go a big tear, they became shorts.

 

Just wore my Skyscraper jeans for the first time last week. Got to wear them with high high heels. 

[Puffer]

On 4/6/2025 at 8:28 AM, CrushedVamp said:

...

Overall its just a dislike of mine for todays dress like a slob attitude that seems to permeate fashion.

My daughter now wears Bear Jeans. I call them that because every time she wears them I ask her if she needs her AR-15 to take out the bear that attacked her and shredded her jeans to nothing but gaping holes...

I was looking at getting my wife another ankle bracelet the other day and got sidetracked on a blog post where the woman railed against ankle bracelets ...

I completely agree about the prevalence of sloppy/slobbish dress being totally unappealing.   Ripped jeans are pointless.
In England up to c1970, any woman wearing an ankle chain/bracelet was regarded (usually correctly) as advertising herself as a prostitute.   But ankle chains have since become quite fashionable and generally acceptable here (on women of almost any age), although there is still something of the 'common tart' vibe about them in the view of some critics.   Personally, I like them, although I am not a great fan of jewellery in general.

[bluejay]

4 hours ago, Puffer said:

I completely agree about the prevalence of sloppy/slobbish dress being totally unappealing.   Ripped jeans are pointless.
In England up to c1970, any woman wearing an ankle chain/bracelet was regarded (usually correctly) as advertising herself as a prostitute.   But ankle chains have since become quite fashionable and generally acceptable here (on women of almost any age), although there is still something of the 'common tart' vibe about them in the view of some critics.   Personally, I like them, although I am not a great fan of jewellery in general.

Why should women only be allowed to wear anklets. I wear one often. My wife and I have matching anklets.

Happy Heeling

bluejay

[CrushedVamp]

23 hours ago, Puffer said:

I completely agree about the prevalence of sloppy/slobbish dress being totally unappealing.   Ripped jeans are pointless.
In England up to c1970, any woman wearing an ankle chain/bracelet was regarded (usually correctly) as advertising herself as a prostitute.   But ankle chains have since become quite fashionable and generally acceptable here (on women of almost any age), although there is still something of the 'common tart' vibe about them in the view of some critics.   Personally, I like them, although I am not a great fan of jewellery in general.

I cannot think of a reason why men shouldn’t wear them.

And what would it matter, all forms of jewelry are bondage like. I mean necklaces are collar-like, bracelets resemble handcuffs, ankle bracelets are leg iron-like, etc.

Its even been said wearing jewelry started out back when cave men chained his cave women to a cave wall so she would not run off as he went out and hunted down his wooly mammoth. Then one day he saw pretty shiny rocks in a stream, pounding the soft metal into a chain, and gave that to her instead so she had something shiny to wear instead of being chained to the cave wall. Other cave women saw her jewelry and wanted that from her special caveman. I have my doubts on if wearing jewelry started out that way or not, but it was what I was told.

Myself I have never looked at a woman wearing an anklet as anything but wholesome, but I also grew up going to church and a lot of women wore them in the 1980’s, and now in a resurgence, are wearing them again. In looking around last year, I counted 7 women wearing anklets out of 350 church members. Its not like everyone is wearing them at church, but at the same time, not uncommon to see in a respectable setting.

But I once saw a lady who did not think the same way as I do. We had just got out of church so my wife was dressed up in a dress, pantyhose, ankle bracelet and high heels, and needed to grab some things from a big box store that sells hardware. As we were grabbing some things for a home project a couple came in the same aisle, and she looked down at my wife’s ankle, then looked at me, then down, then at her husband, and from her raw inquisitive look you could just see that she had heard that ankle bracelets can mean sometimes open relationships. We do NOT do that, my wife just likes ankle bracelets, but you could see the woman was mortified.

Edited April 9 by CrushedVamp

[Shyheels]

Metal has been used for adornment for thousands of years, since the dawn of the Bronze Age. You can read too much into it though. The simple fact is that if you are going to wear these sorts of adornments there are just so many possibilities in how you can do that. While you can pin a brooch onto a cloak, anything else has to be wrap-around - a ring, a bracelet, a crown, a necklace. Such things were worn mainly as symbols of rank or importance, displays of wealth, not enslavement.

so called cave men never chained women to cave walls. For starters, they did not have metal. There’s a reason it is called the Stone Age.  Nor is there much, if any, knowledge of social structures in Paleolithic, Mesolithic or Neolithic societies although advances in technology have been opening up archaeology is ways that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, especially with regards to the Neolithic. What evidence we do have suggests women could be in positions of power.

Im surprised by the negativity about ankle chains. Certainly today.

in Double Indemnity (1944) Phyllis, the femme fatale, wore one and while it caught the eye and interest of insurance salesman Walter Neff, there was nothing overt about it. Certainly it passed the Hays Production Code at the time.

[CrushedVamp]

21 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Metal has been used for adornment for thousands of years, since the dawn of the Bronze Age. You can read too much into it though. The simple fact is that if you are going to wear these sorts of adornments there are just so many possibilities in how you can do that. While you can pin a brooch onto a cloak, anything else has to be wrap-around - a ring, a bracelet, a crown, a necklace. Such things were worn mainly as symbols of rank or importance, displays of wealth, not enslavement.

so called cave men never chained women to cave walls. For starters, they did not have metal. There’s a reason it is called the Stone Age.  Nor is there much, if any, knowledge of social structures in Paleolithic, Mesolithic or Neolithic societies although advances in technology have been opening up archaeology is ways that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, especially with regards to the Neolithic. What evidence we do have suggests women could be in positions of power.

Im surprised by the negativity about ankle chains. Certainly today.

in Double Indemnity (1944) Phyllis, the femme fatale, wore one and while it caught the eye and interest of insurance salesman Walter Neff, there was nothing overt about it. Certainly it passed the Hays Production Code at the time.

Very valid points on everything...

Kind of an interesting note on ankle bracelets and femme fatale's. In the Femme Fatale novel I wrote, I had my main character wear an ankle bracelet with a little locket on it. She said it was the ashes of her late-mother, but in reality, it was where she kept her cyanide that she killed several men with. It was kind of a cool way to always have a means to kill on her with nobody really the wiser to it. She also owned sheep, so she had all the ingredients on hand to cook up her own cyanide. 

On the other end of the spectrum with them though there are those in India where women typical have some opulent ankle bracelets because that is how they show they are married. It works over there because of their style of dress but I am not so sure that would work so well in western cultures. It would be kind of awkward to pull up the cuff on a lady's jeans to see if she was married or not before hitting on her at a dance club! 🙂

As for those that think the ankle bracelet is shameful in some way, it has that in common with the pineapple. I have heard that putting displays of pineapple symbols around your house, like pineapples on your porch, of having pineapple shaped wall decorations or the sort is a way people who have open marriages tell others of their lifestyle. But that is not the case at all. Pineapples have typically been status symbols because prior to refrigeration, to have such costly tropical fruit meant the owners had money. They even showed a university that is well known for degrees in the hospitality industry, having pineapples all across their campus to show that.

The one piece of jewelry I think is very unique, but have never seen on a person in real life, is the waist chain. I wonder what kind of secret meaning that is supposed to have? 🙂 

[Shyheels]

Lambeth Bridge in London has pineapple decorations on top of its pillars, a 17th century celebration of this exotic fruit which English horticulturalists had managed to grow in a greenhouse in Lambeth 

[mlroseplant]

I had never really thought about the significance of an ankle bracelet. I know that they are very popular among the younger generation of Vietnamese, and I believe my wife was an early adopter, as I am not personally aware of anybody else of her generation who wears one. We've never really talked about it, but I think she wears hers for some rather ill-defined superstitious reason. It certainly isn't worn for any kind of sex appeal.

To address the other subject, I have been on the prowl for some new jeans for everyday use. It's difficult to find ordinary straight cut jeans anymore, at least in women's styles and sizes. I rather like skinny jeans, but I'm also getting to be a grumpy old guy, and I don't want to struggle to get my pants on and off every day. I'll save that for special occasions. At the other end of the spectrum, there are flared boot cuts. I have a couple of pairs leftover from the last time they were in style, and I dug them out this year. I don't think they look too bad on me, but again, the use has to be purposeful. Boot cuts only look good with um, boots. Or at least heels of some sort. Otherwise, they look sloppy to my eye. Plus, you can't come home and take off your heels when you walk in the door, because now your pants are dragging the floor. First World problems, I guess.

[Shyheels]

I wear skinny jeans because I like to wear my knee and OTK boots a lot and if you’re wearing boots over jeans, skinny is best. On the other hand on occasions I have to wear my hiking/mountaineering boots and with skinny jeans they make my feet look enormous