YouSpeak: Guys in Skinny Jeans

Great idea or fashion faux pas?

October 3, 2011
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Fashion is fickle. It wasn’t long ago that it was acceptable for guys to wear pants so baggy that their boxers were on display. But now—at least among hipsters and the fashion forward—there’s been a 180-degree turn. Skinny jeans on guys are considered hot.

What was once a style exclusively for women is now being embraced by more and more men. Sales are strong and manufacturers like Gap, Levi’s, True Religion, and 7 for All Mankind, to name but a few, have jumped on the male skinny jeans bandwagon.

Even fans of the trend admit, though, that skinny jeans aren’t for every guy. “Their thighs have to be okay for it,” says one student.

What do you think? This week’s “YouSpeak” asks, “Should guys wear skinny jeans?”

“YouSpeak” typically appears each Monday.

If you have a suggestion for a question we should ask, post it in the comments section below.

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There are 30 comments on YouSpeak: Guys in Skinny Jeans

    1. preach! guys, wear what you want. anyone who says “tight clothes are for girls” is a total sexist asshole, shaming guys for the entire lower halves of their bodies and objectifying ladies while they’re at it.

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  2. Fashion isn’t fickle. PEOPLE ARE. Why not let everyone wear what they want to, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to wear it? Or are you too juvenile to do that?

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  3. Tight pants are more aerodynamic. This is a plus when riding a fixed gear bicycle. Unless it has no brakes. Then the baggy pants will keep down the maximum velocity. To dig deeper… if you have a moped, not a scooter, the skinny pants will increase your MPG’s for the same reason. Its all about the speed folks.

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    1. Aleks, you’re spot on about the aerodynamic benefits, especially when coupled with a studded belt that disrupts the laminar flow. The latest wind tunnel tests have also shown benefits from an iconic trucker hat with a brim that acts as a spoiler for greater downforce in corners. The John Deere hat is good for an additional 1-2 mph for unknown reasons.

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      1. Italians in Rome and Tuscany have known the tight pants / Vespa mileage advantage for years. The cellular phone to the ear (especially a passenger ear) has shown to have greater spoiler effects than the studded belt …. I think the John Deere effect is due to the GREEN logo. Green vehicles always get better mileage – duh!

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        1. Right on. I always wear a helmet while I ride. But the foam inside the front of the trucker hat does have some impact protection. Maybe if I wear two trucker hats I can have reasonable front impact energy absorption? The question that remains is wind noise effect on the mobile phone microphone? Is it better to have laminar or eddy flow?

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  4. “It makes you look like a young, youthful guy.”

    In other words, “Someone who’s going to look at pictures of himself in a decade or two and shake his head, wondering what he was thinking.” Just remember, folks, pictures on the Internet are forever.

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    1. No way will you shake your head. I treasure my Angel Flights photos from the disco era where you could see a quarter inside the front pocket. . . . . . . . Even more, I recommend everyone have the hottest possible pictures taken of themselves while they are in their late teens and twenties – when you hit your 40s those will be golden memories. . . . . Life is better now, but I don’t look near as good at my age :)

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    1. Well if those Greeks bothered to pay their taxes once in a while and stopped cooking the books Europe (and the world) wouldn’t be in such a mess now, would it?

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  9. It seems fashion continually downplays the importance if clothes that fit. I was once victim of the baggy pants fad, but I have since rejected in favor of pants that are my size and wear well. Skinny jeans are stupid to me because the wearer always looks like he is uncomfortable…like his pants are some sort of torture device. Well fitting pants will complement your assets without making you look like you’re about to pop a blood vessel, but hey, if that’s what you’re going for, far be it for me to tell you not to.

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  10. I wear skinny jeans because they fit me better overall than standard fit jeans. To the girl who made the comment about “manorexic-ness,” not all guys have an athletic body or an overweight body. I have always been really skinny and I’m not going to force myself to be otherwise. I actually don’t like it. But skinny jeans are what work best for me because of that.

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  12. I don’t understand why people think they’re painful to wear! HALF OF THE SKINNY JEANS THAT MOST OF US OWN HAVE 1-5% SPANDEX. They’re extremely comfortable, and if you wear girl skinnies that are more unisex styled, then the extra hip room tailored into the waist for girls translates to MORE BALL ROOM for guys.

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  13. HERE is the bottom line folks…. ready? …. If you are skinny…. you may wear skinny jeans… frankly skinny jeans should not be manufactured for waist sizes higher than 30″ it’s an oxymoron otherwise

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  15. It pains me that this is what passes for journalism on the BU campus. This article is not only horrendously sexist (I’m sure you’d love to hear how men feel about women in low-cut tops), it’s also just basic hate-mongering. Gender crossover of fashion items, like pantsuits for women in the 1980’s, make identity borrowing an empowerment issue. Lots of people hate skinny jeans on men because they are “for girls,” implying that the man wearing them is effeminate or gay. While the writers should be ashamed, it is great to see how many readers saw straight through this issue.

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  16. Well, I used to live in Washing DC Area and Northern Virginia and People are soooo stiff and Robotic there. Everyone had a Cop look and Cop stiffness to them. Some people would literally walk like Terminators. I personally dislike super Conservative environments like that. Yuck.

    Anyways, so i moved to Atlanta and felt alot more comfortable here and I have recently started rocking skinny Jeans and I really liked it the first time I wore it :)

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