The rise of menswear romanticism: the new aesthetic reshaping how men dress

It is not a coincidence that Jacob Elordi chooses to wear womenswear from Chanel or Bottega Veneta off-duty_ without sponsorship_ stylist_ or explanation. Or that A$AP Rocky becomes a face of Chanel despite the house producing no menswear line. What makes these moments significant is not the celebrity behaviour itself_ it is what it signals about the consumer behind it.

More than half of Gen Z consumers believe gender-neutral clothing is the future of fashion. 56% prefer brands that offer gender-neutral options_ while 33% have already purchased from gender-fluid collections. The global unisex apparel market_ worth $11.73 billion in 2024_ is projected to reach $62 billion by 2033.

So here is the question fashion professionals should be sitting with: if the consumer has already moved_ what is the industry waiting for?

The rules were invented

Gendered clothing categories are not a natural law. For most of human history_ clothing differentiated social status far more than sex. Egyptians_ Greeks_ and Romans wore draped and wrapped garments across genders; variation was expressed through material and decoration_ not binary form. It was only in the late eighteenth century that Western menswear underwent what the psychoanalyst John Carl Flügel called the "great male renunciation": a decisive cultural shift in which men abandoned ornamentation in favour of sobriety and restraint_ effectively outsourcing visual expression to womenswear. Before that moment_ pink was associated with financial power and physical bravery_ or decoration signalled status_ not gender.

The binary the modern fashion industry is built around is_ in historical terms_ both recent and culturally specific. Worth remembering the next time a buying meeting treats "menswear" and "womenswear" as self-evident_ permanent categories. However_ the industry still rests on assumptions that are rarely questioned

For instance_ have you ever wondered why tweed is considered feminine? It was originally woven for men on Scottish moors_ Coco Chanel borrowed it for women and made it iconic. Or is sheer inherently womanly because it is delicate? Is a suit masculine because it has structure? These distinctions underpin how collections are designed_ how stores are organised_ and how consumers are guided through the act of shopping. They are historical accidents. And right now_ they are starting to break.

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The long road to now

Fashion has challenged these rules before_ but usually from the margins. David Bowie in a dress_ Prince in lingerie on stage_ Kurt Cobain in floral dresses_ these were framed as provocations. Which at the time were important culturally_ but merely outliers.

What changed now was scale and normalisation. Harry Styles's 2020 Vogue cover translated gender fluidity into something the mainstream could process. What has followed is a generation of cultural figures: Timothée Chalamet_ or Jacob Elordi_ who are not dressing to make a statement_ they are simply dressing. Chalamet's sheer blouses and embellished tailoring no longer register as controversial_ and Elordi wore a women's Chanel jacket on the Wuthering Heights press tour without a stylist's directive and without sponsorship and now all publications reference him as the best dressed man.

These men are not the cause of a shift_ they are its consequence. The cause is structural: a generation of male consumers increasingly comfortable with ambiguity_ sensitivity_ and self-expression in how they dress. That is the shift. And for fashion professionals_ the more interesting question is not whether it is happening_ but what it means for the business.

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What this means for buyers and brands

The male consumer who is engaging with this shift is not a niche customer. He is typically higher-spend_ more brand-loyal_ and less driven by trend cycles than the streetwear cohort that dominated the previous decade. Independent retailers who moved early_ stocking labels like Séfr_ Bode_ Auralee or even COS several seasons ago_ are already seeing this commercially. These labels are selling craft_ texture_ and emotional register: chunky artisanal knitwear_ worn-in tailoring in natural fibres_ earthy palettes_ considered silhouettes.

For instance_ the men's bag has quietly become a genuine retail category_ and the search data proves it. According to Google Trends_ search interest in men's bags grew 3_750% over the past twelve months_ outpacing women's bag searches_ which grew 2_400% over the same period (line chart). And within the related searches to “men_s bags”_ the ones rising the most are “tote bag”_ “men's tote bag”_ or “men_s beach bag” (bar chart) – signaling this normalisation of more typically womanly items.

For buyers_ the practical implication is a product mix question_ not an identity question. Which categories translate? Which labels are already operating in this space? How do you merchandise it without it reading as a trend stunt? The answer_ from the retailers doing it well_ is to lead with quality and craft_ not with the gender conversation. The customer is shopping a wardrobe.

The global menswear market is projected to grow from $620 billion in 2024 to nearly $1 trillion by 2033_ with evolving gender norms explicitly cited as a structural driver_ which is a great commercial signal.

Where is menswear going?

Not toward androgyny as a statement. Toward something more commercially viable_ which I like to call “romantic realism”: a softening of the male wardrobe that is less about transgression and more about texture_ craft_ and emotional register. The question now is whether the rest of the industry's infrastructure_ its buying floors_ brand categories_ trade show organisation_ and the language it uses to describe clothing_ is capable of meeting him.

Menswear and womenswear as fixed_ distinct categories made sense in the world the "great male renunciation" created. That world is over and brands and retailers that recognise this first_ not as a social position_ but as a commercial reality_ will be the ones best positioned for what comes next.

Clothes don't have a gender. And they never really did_ the industry built its entire architecture around the idea anyway. Now it is going to have to rebuild_ and the ones who start now will have the advantage.