Future Dressing Redux

I don’t get out much. First, it was the pandemic, then some health issues, then I became a housewife, which included being caretaker for my spouse. So I was a little surprised when I discovered that out in the world males using makeup and wearing feminine clothing was more prevalent than I imagined. 

This revelation occurred while watching a British reality program called 100% Hotter in which men and women off the street receive makeovers. There were mostly women in the episodes that I watched, but the few males that appeared on the show all used makeup to one degree or another and all borrowed clothing from milady’s closet.

This got me thinking about a blog post I wrote (“Future Dressing”) back in 2014 and reposted in 2018, in which I predicted what men will be wearing 25 years into the future. I decided to revisit my predictions which are now only 17 years into the future. But before I do that, I want to briefly revisit the past for those readers who pooh-poohed my predictions.

Go back to 1962. Who in 1962 would have predicted that 60 years in the future, men would: 

• Use makeup

• Remove all body hair

• Use perfume (or “colognes” as the manly men prefer to call it)

• Go to salons (and abandon barber shops) for their hair needs (styling, coloring, etc.)

• Wear purses, jewelry, shapewear and undies in a variety of colors, styles, and fabrics

• Stay at home to perform housekeeping tasks, while their wives were breadwinning

• And on and on and on... You’ve come a long way, baby! (I hesitate to use the word “feminization,” but what would you call it?)

So, what will life be like for us in 17 years?

It will be completely acceptable for males to dress however they please. Just as it is acceptable for females to wear male clothing today, it will be acceptable for males to wear female clothing in 2043. (There are a reasons for this that I will address in a future post.)  

There will be different degrees of how males adopt womenswear. At one end of the spectrum are guys who may on occasion wear a macho skirt, a manly pair of high heels and a little foundation, while at the other end of the spectrum will be the femboys (you know who you are), who will dress in womenswear all of the time from head to open toe pumps. And nobody will hassle anyone for what they wear except maybe scolding those gentle men wearing white frocks after Labor Day.

There will no longer be women’s and men’s restrooms; there will just be restrooms.

Clothing stores will no longer segregate their wares between women and men or girls and boys. Instead, the stores will have adult, young adult, and children’s clothing departments.

Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) will be very common in 17 years because folks will be able to get SRS on demand just like cosmetic surgery can be had on demand today. Folks with and without gender dysphoria will be able to change genders and the results will be more satisfactory because of advances in the surgical procedures.

All health insurance plans will cover gender-related procedures, either as basic coverage or as an option like some plans offer vision and dental coverage as an add-on expense today. For example, if you were contemplating SRS, you could opt for gender coverage and it would not be an expensive add-on because the procedure will be so common in 17 years.

By 2043, you will be able to live in whatever gender role you prefer. When someone asks a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” the anticipated answer will be “girl” or “boy” and not a career choice. Females can be as macho as they want to be and males can be as feminine as they want to be.

What a wonderful world it will be!

Wearing Boston Proper

Prom-bound sister and brother

Some Boys Already Wear Dresses

The accompanying slideshow is a compilation of male models wearing dresses, skirts and other female finery. Most are shown while on the job modeling womenswear on the runway or posing for catalogs or fashion magazine spreads. While others are candid shots taken while on the job or not?

One thing they all have in common: they all are flat-chested. Some wear bras, but there are no breast forms or other paraphernalia to femulate female breasts.

Tall and thin male models are used to model womenswear because they conform to the ideal female model profile, i.e., tall, thin and flat-chested.

Okay – I get it. But why are these guys showing up off the job still wearing makeup, hairdos and female finery? Are they transgenders or trendsetters?

Some admit to being the former. Others might be transgender, too, but are unwilling to reveal that fact.

Can I assume that the rest are trendsetters, who prefer to adorn themselves using the wardrobe options that are available to females?

The lack of falsies indicates that they aren’t femulators, so I assume they are trying to blaze a new trail in the world of male fashion.

Take Phillipe Blond (Slide 25 above), for example. He is an American fashion designer, who always appears in public wearing “women’s” clothing, yet his given name, flat chest and male voice are assurances that he is a boy.

And he is not alone.

Wearing Unique Vintage

Julie's Christmas femulation

All Boys Will Wear Dresses

Following up with my recent “All Men Will Wear Dresses” posts (here and here), I learned about Primary, an online children’s clothing store that sells dresses for girls and boys!

I assume there must be a demand for boys’ dresses, otherwise, why would Primary bother. Admittedly, this is not a big investment by Primary because they offer the very same dresses to girls. Primary may be just testing the waters, but if their test pans out and there is a demand for more boy’s dresses, the future of fashion may be interesting.

When dress-wearing boys grow up, they will want to continue wearing dresses as adults. And I can imagine future clothing stores not divided by sex (women's and men’s departments), but by age (children’s and adult’s). I hope I live long enough to see it!

Wearing New York & Company

Angela is posing pretty for Christmas!

All men will wear dresses after all

My recent post titled “All men will wear dresses” talked about an article in the British edition of GQ magazine that predicted, “In 30 years time, the gender-fluidity movement will have progressed to the point that men are not only allowed but encouraged to wear dresses and skirts.”

Maybe, maybe not.

But images like the one on the right make me think that there might be something to GQ’s prediction. The photo shows actress Elizabeth Hurley (right) and her son Damian (left) in a lacy pink dress, girly bracelet and a hairdo just like Mom’s!

The Hurleys are not alone. Google “celebrity children crossdressing” and you will discover many celebrities who are OK with their sons dressing in feminine finery.

How many will continue dressing pretty as adults remains to be seen? But my guess is that unless they are forced to stop dressing pretty, they will continue to do so. For example, Earvin "Magic” Johnson's son EJ Johnson and Will Smith’s son Jaden are celebrity sons who continued to dress pretty as adults.

Some may be transgender, but the others just like to dress pretty and will influence fashion-conscious civilian males to dress pretty, too.

As fellow blogger Juan once wrote, “Gentlemen, put on your skirts and high heels, fetch your purses, and head to the future.”

Usually, I Photoshop ads to remove the ad copy. But ads like the one above contain so much verbiage that no amount of Photoshopping will help and I discard them. However, the model in this Metrostyle ad is absolutely gorgeous and deserves to be seen despite the ad copy.

Damian Hurley

All men will wear dresses

Palomo menswear collection, Fall-Winter 2019

The British edition of GQ magazine published an article titled “What will men wear in 2048?” by Teo Van den Broeke. What follows is an interesting excerpt from the article.

Having called your wardrobe moves since 1988, GQ dons its mystic robes to predict what the fashion of the future looks like...

...

7. All men will wear dresses

In 30 years time, the gender-fluidity movement will have progressed to the point that men are not only allowed but encouraged to wear dresses and skirts. And I’m not just talking about “manly” kilts and tabards, either. Rather, massive, flouncy Molly Goddard-style party frocks that make the best of our legs, feel light on the shoulder and are brilliantly breezy around our bits.

I rarely encounter males in skirts or dresses in my neck of the woods. More often, I see males in female garb that is not skirted, like the male sales associates I have seen working in retail around here, one in a grocery store and two in women’s clothing stores.

On the other hand, femulating males in skirts and dresses is a more common occurrence.

And so it goes.

Wearing New York & Company

Łukasz Zagrobelny femulates Shirley Bassey on Polish television’s Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo.

Future Dressing

What will life be like for us girls in 25 years? Here are my predictions for where we will be in the year 2043.

It will be completely acceptable for males to dress however they please. Just as it is acceptable for females to wear male clothing today, it will be acceptable for males to wear female clothing in 2043.

There will be different degrees of how males adopt womenswear. At one end of the spectrum are guys who may on occasion wear a macho skirt, a manly pair of high heels and a little foundation, while at the other end of the spectrum will be the "femmen" (you know who you are), who will dress in womenswear all of the time. And nobody will hassle anyone for what they wear except maybe scolding those fellows wearing white frocks after Labor Day.

There will no longer be women's and men's restrooms; there will just be restrooms.

Clothing stores will no longer segregate their wares between women and men or girls and boys. Instead, the stores will have adult, young adult, and children's clothing departments.

Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) will be very common in 25 years because folks will be able to get SRS on demand just like cosmetic surgery can be had on demand today. Folks with and without gender dysphoria will be able to change genders and the results will be more satisfactory because of advances in the surgical procedures.

All health insurance plans will cover gender-related procedures, either as basic coverage or as an option like some plans offer vision and dental coverage as an add-on expense today. For example, if you were contemplating SRS, you could opt for gender coverage and it would not be an expensive add-on because the procedure will be so common in 25 years.

By 2043, you will be able to live in whatever gender role you prefer. When someone asks a child, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" the anticipated answer will be "girl" or "boy" and not a career choice. Females can be as macho as they want to be and males can be as feminine as they want to be.

What a wonderful world it will be!

(Caveat Emptor: This is an update of a post I posted in the past.)

Wearing Joie (Source: Intermix)

Michael Baird (right) femulates in the St. Louis stage production of Devil Boys from Beyond.