People constantly debate whether or not men should wear crop tops, when the truth is, men actually invented crop tops. In the early 70s football attire for men resembled what is known to us as the crop top which then began a trend across America among young men.
Over into the 80s, men began wearing crop tops as fashion statements. Pop culture has had a big influence on this, from artist like Prince, who is known for his gender bending fashions, to Johnny Deep seen in the film The Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) sporting a cropped sweatshirt.
This trend then went on into the 90s where many men began to refrain from the trend due to changes in dress codes across America in schools and constant labeling from peers beginning to start due to gender roles in society. Women began wearing crops in the 80s along with men, but with the shift in pop culture, along with the uprise of hip hop having influenced differences in men’s fashion, crop tops eventually became “a girl thing”.
Presently, women dominate the crop top world more than ever but Kid Cudi, Jaden Smith, Kanye West and NFL player Ezekiel Elliot have broken these barriers in the 2010s. Kid Cudi performed on stage at Coachella in 2014 in a red cropped, sleeveless sweatshirt that allegedly sparked an evolution for the new decade. Ezekiel Elliot had broke barriers in early 2016 wearing a powder blue suit with a cropped button down shirt on the red carpet at the NFL Draft in Chicago.
Today, more men are beginning to defy gender roles and wear what they please, no matter whether it be skirts, crop tops or even heels, from people like Young Thug to Kanye West, and other fashion icons today. With constant change in society and the progression of social media, gender roles are slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past, and soon, the only thing that will matter is if you are being creative and free with the looks you serve and that you are happy with what you wear.
