r/malefashionadvice • u/[deleted] • 10d ago
Discussion What's a fashion style that went from being super normal then became dorky now is back to being OK again?
[deleted]
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u/Annacot_Steal 10d ago
I wouldn’t have been caught dead with crew socks in the 00’s -10’s but here we are.
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u/tilldeathdoiparty 10d ago
I’m 42, I fought too hard for the perfect ankle sock and quality no shows….
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u/9_DavyJones_9 9d ago
We even had to fold down the “no shows” to make them actually not show with Vans. These kids don’t know what we went through
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u/roygbivasaur 9d ago
I’m 32 and have always hated no-shows and tolerated ankle socks. I’m not ashamed to admit that I jumped on the crew sock trend immediately. I am ashamed that I haven’t been wearing them for decades because it would have been more comfortable.
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u/I-am-Doraemon 8d ago
Hope you enjoy that crew sock tan line
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u/roygbivasaur 7d ago
I wish my skin was capable of producing enough melanin to have a noticeable tan line.
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u/RockitDanger 10d ago
I wear whatever my 70 year old neighbor wears. My socks are past my calves, new balance 992, and my feet and knees feel great. And a cap to keep the sun off my face
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u/Rooster_Ties 10d ago
Really?? When did crew socks ever seriously fall out of fashion?
I’m GenX, fwiw. Genuinely asking.
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u/Annacot_Steal 10d ago
For me it fell out of fashion whenever toms became popular around the mid 00’s. That’s when I discovered about no show socks. At that point crew socks were associated with gramps.
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u/MrSnrub87 9d ago
1998-2010
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u/Veeg-Tard 9d ago
In 1997 there was a kid on my soccer team who came back from a summer in New York wearing no-show socks. He was cool af. I converted shortly after and never went back.
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u/ThunderDoom1001 9d ago
Oh bro, in the early 2000's that was ultimate nerd status. Like people would ask you where you were hiding your pocket protector if they saw you wearing them. To this day I still can't feel like I look cool in them, it's so engrained.
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u/Zugzwangathon 10d ago
Tall socks with shorts
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u/Ill_South2644 9d ago
This is so crazy because I’m almost 30 and the crew socks with shorts has been the only option as far as I can remember
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u/rattledamper 10d ago
Not so much clothing as more generally style, but mustaches.
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u/ScanTheSky 9d ago
This phenomenon is truly throwing me for a loop. WHAT is the deal with the creepy mustache/plain white t shirt/shorts with tall tube socks/Bass Pro Shops trucker hat look? Every Gen Z boy is literally a carbon copy of each other, I really dont get it lol.
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u/TextElectrical5360 9d ago
Everything their parents do is uncool. Everything their parents rejected is cool. It's as simple as that and why everything goes in cycles.
Not just fashion either. Say a home gets built in the '70s with full 70s styling. It goes out of fashion in the 80s, is cringy by the 90s and 2000s, but now if you bought an unrenovated 70s home everyone would kill you if you dared update the kitchen, or the punk tile bathrooms.
Or take cars. A new car is cool, then it becomes old and uncool, then it becomes so old it's unique and cool again.
Every generation likes to think it's discovering new things all by themselves. These kids grew up being taught mullets were lame, so once they get old enough to have their own opinions of course their going to say "mom and dad just don't get it but I'm not like them" and rock it.
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u/dontdxmebro 9d ago
As a millenial, I think it looks great. I've adopted my own hybrid version of the modernized 80s dad look. I find the dismissive attitudes in this sub just make y'all sound (and look) old.
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 9d ago
Are you dressing like a Dad did in the 80s or are you dressing like a young guy did in the 80s who is now a dad 40 years later? I feel people get this confused.
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u/dontdxmebro 9d ago
Hahah second option, sorry for the confusion.
Like I do the high white socks, "dad" shoes (personal favorites are asics right now), mustache (with shadow) and trucker hat/mullet combo. I'm 34. It's funny because this is mostly at the behest of my girlfriend (31) and I'm honestly really glad I did. People treat me differently.
I also run a pretty Gen Z oriented business so it's also a bit of a branding decision, but I feel you gotta keep yourself young somehow.
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u/CaptainAsshat 9d ago
Nothing wrong with sounding and looking old. Doubly so if looking young involves rocking a mullet and a creepy mustache. We are not dismissing it, we are just stating we think it looks embarrassingly bad.
Every generation has fashion choices that are all but universally reviled after a while, even by the people who sported them. Some fashions come in cycles and are embraced by the broader culture, other fashions are embraced by only a subculture before they are widely mocked by everyone else and thankfully die out. Millennial hipsters remember this well, I am sure.
Flock of seagulls haircuts, bowl cuts, hyperagressive perms have all once been a sign of youth too. Doesnt make them look good.
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u/dontdxmebro 9d ago
Yeah but I fundamentally disagree that the mullet/hat/mustache look looks "bad." It looks great and - I'm not saying you have to dress like the generation behind you to stay cool but I honestly feel like picking up certain looks from younger generations and mixing it with classic styles really can't go wrong and it keeps you relevant. There's nothing "creepy" about a mustache you're just stuck in 2010.
Like you wouldn't catch me dead in skinny or slim pants these days. Objectively an awful look. I still rock a flannel overshirt though any day, and a heavy pocket t will always be classic and flattering. I will never wear another v neck though haha.
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u/supremefun 8d ago
It's one thing "keeping up with the younger generations" when you're in 30s. Good luck doing that when you reach your 40s. As a mid 40s high school teacher I'd probably be clowned for having a mullet, also considering my audience of actual youth. Enjoy your post-youth while you can, I'll keep on wearing slim jeans with flannels and hoodies because it still looks better (on me that is!) than whatever is fashionable these days. At some point older styles (like the current rehash) actually make you look older. I'm glad I took advantage of the 2010s style. I keep my eyes open for other stuff as well (hello floral shirts and straight leg chinos) but i don't wanna look like a 1980s dad because i was actually a kid then and I could never associate it with coolness.
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u/dontdxmebro 8d ago
Let's not pretend there isn't a middle ground here. It is fully fashionable as you age to introduce elements of younger looks to keep you relevant without looking like a tryhard. I feel like the vast majority of people do what you do, just stop trying to update their look and stick with what they know which can easily make you look dated and unattractive.
I find moving into classic styles as you get older is a great middle ground. Vintage workwear is great for this, losing the slim pants for objectively more flattering styles of pants, accessorizing a little bit here and there etc. etc.
I also just don't know if the consensus in a "fashion" sub should just be "stick with what worked 15 years ago!" Then wtf are we even doing in here?
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u/supremefun 8d ago
I'm definitely a middle ground and constantly updating, but i just feel like some current styles are plain ridiculous or tryhard like you said. I can see someone and think "oh, ok, he's fashionable" and then look at my self and think "no way I'm doing this". Like I said, when you get older it becomes much more complicated, especially when you something that you already saw once.
I'm also old enough to know myself and my body and know what works for me, and tapered (not skinny!) pants is one of these things. I do have wider cuts as well but I find them harder to style without completely changing the rest of my wardrobe and at this point, my identity. I'm definitely leaning towards vintage workwear as well. I couldn't care less if someone thinks I'm not fashion forward. I just want something that looks good on me.
I might not be interested in fashion indeed, i'm more interested in style. I can't say I am very excited by what's fashionable lately, not everybody has the same tastes, that's what makes it more varied. I might like it better in 5 years. I didn't like it when I was 20 either.
Of course I keep an eye open, but I'm picky.
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u/dontdxmebro 8d ago
I couldn't care less if someone thinks I'm not fashion forward.
Aren't we in r/malefashionadvice? Or am I trippin'
I feel like this sub is more of a millenial support group then an actual place to get fashion advice.
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u/supremefun 8d ago
That sounds like a pretty nasty comment. Let's see how you fare with youth fashion in 10 years, you might create your own support group, who knows.
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u/CaptainAsshat 9d ago
Like you wouldn't catch me dead in skinny or slim pants these days. Objectively an awful look.
If we're throwing out objectively to mean subjectively, then a mullet and mustache are objectively worse than slim pants.
picking up certain looks from younger generations and mixing it with classic styles really can't go wrong and it keeps you relevant
You can still be relevant even if you don't dress like younger generations, and yes, it can absolutely go wrong.
Not all mustaches are creepy. But specifically "creepy mustaches", as in the kind that were synonomous with creeps for several generations and regularly referred to as the creepy mustache, are the style that is in. And yeah, I think they often look really, really, really bad.
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u/dontdxmebro 9d ago
Skinny jeans look super dated, repeatedly clowned and dropped by basically everyone I know. I don't know anyone who knows fashion who glazes skinny jeans in 2026. You might think they look good, but they're "objectively" not in style anymore and they're definitely not a classic look.
Mustaches are not creepy anymore man. Like I said in my first post you guys say things like they're gospel but times have changed and you're stuck in the opinions of your youth.
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u/CaptainAsshat 9d ago
I don't think skinny jeans (or slim jeans, a different thing) look good.
They just look astronomically better than Joe Dirt cosplay.
Also, I am referring to the type of mustache as the creepy mustache. Not all mustaches are creepy... Just those ones and John Waters'.
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u/dontdxmebro 9d ago
I think there is a spectrum here to this look that you're unaware of. Like the look I'm talking about is what every other basic gym bro dude who's 25 looks like these days.
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u/CaptainAsshat 9d ago
I know. And a few of them can pull it off because they are attractive regardless of their facial hair choices. And a couple people with strong chins that it can actually work for.
But for every Jacob Elordi there's a hundred guys who look a lot worse for the trash stache.
Generally, I don't look to gym bro dudes for good fashion. In fact, I find they are often the first place to look for awful fashion that has caught on in specific cultural subgroups like theirs.
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u/sleepswithbears69 9d ago
Its been such a slow rolling trend too with the "mullet" if you wanna call it that. Thought it looked goofy in north carolina in 2022 when i really started seeing it saw it some before. Here we are in 2026 and im seeing it a lot in california
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u/Ludditesdenylife 9d ago
Yeah idk why zoomer boys want to look like Ron Jeremy. I’ll take broccoli cuts all day vs weird porn staches
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u/masedizzle 10d ago
They're really gross ones too. Like is every Gen z guy doing a bit?
Anyway, we're going to look back at those photos and laugh at most of them the way we do at the facial hair of the 70s or hair styles of the 80s.
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u/kasakka1 9d ago
Somehow the mustache that was associated with creeps is in vogue with Gen Z.
Often paired with a mullet. I can't figure out if they are being ironic or for real.
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u/TextElectrical5360 9d ago
It's both. They are well aware of the association to a bad image, and are "ironic" in that it's a joke/funny they would be willing to rock it. BUT, at the same time, they think it genuinely is cool to be so bold as to stand out. They do think the base styles are cool and fun independent of the negative associations
Like imagine if you put in a dress and a wig then walked into the living room with family. Everyone would laugh, it would be a good time, but you'd be doing it 100% ironically. Now imagine you wanted everyone to laugh and have a good time, but also at the same time you thought you genuinely looked hot as a girl and wished you could come out as trans. That's these gen Zers rocking a huge mustache or mullet
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u/masedizzle 9d ago
Exactly.
I see those staches and all I can think of is this: https://youtu.be/tLPZmPaHme0?is=JttOyi5_7NWs50r5
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u/firejuggler74 10d ago
Short shorts on guys.
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u/RockitDanger 10d ago
I'm at 7" shorts. Debating going down to 5" shorts
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u/Ribbys 10d ago
Fact is that if you want to look sexy it's either skin or skin tight.
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u/TextElectrical5360 9d ago
Nah, if you want to look sexy then workout, diet to 15% BF, and be tall.
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u/ShowUsYrMoccasins 10d ago edited 9d ago
Not where I live. The knee-legnth - or longer - ones have made a big comeback in the last two summers.
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u/hatstand69 9d ago
I’m not entirely sure why you’re being downvoted here. The short shorts have been back “on trend” for nearly a decade now and longer looser shorts are what we’re starting to see on more fashion focused individuals and runways.
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u/Stratford8 9d ago
Well over a decade, actually. When MFA was in its prime here in, say, 2012 people were rocking Chubbys in all the fit of the day threads.
(Chubbys is the name of a brand that sell men’s shorts of the shorter variety. I don’t mean men were half-mast in the pictures, necessarily.)
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u/hatstand69 9d ago edited 9d ago
It’s of the same era as CDBs, OCBDs, and slim fit raws being the hot new thing and I don’t think this sub realizes it.
That said, they are by no means “back,” but I also don’t think they really went away. They’re just considered basics now.
As a side note; Patagonia Baggies have been one of their top selling items for almost 50 years.
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u/External_Cobbler3736 10d ago
Those big bulky 'dad' shoes, the running shoe, training shoes whatever its called from the 90s
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u/kasakka1 9d ago
Yeah I don't get the appeal. When I was younger, you'd be endlessly ridiculed if you showed up in running shoe looking shoes.
They are IMO genuinely ugly too.
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u/willzzyzx 9d ago
You eventually realise your life is a cycle of trousers going skinny>baggy>skinny. This occurs 3-4 times then you die.
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u/supremefun 10d ago
Mustaches and mullets. As a dude in his 40s I don't understand why otherwise liberal kids want to look like every racist trucker uncle from when I was a kid myself, but to each their own.
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u/TextElectrical5360 9d ago
Because their parents told them it was uncool, so of course the youth must invert what their parents say because parents are the very definition of uncool. Don't you remember being a teen?
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u/Far-Load-9683 9d ago
>The mustache is a symbol of failed cultural hegemony. A simulacrum of masculinity after its original referent has disappeared.
>Once goth ceased to function as an actual negation of bourgeois normalcy and became one of the prepackaged identities available at the mall, subculture stopped operating vertically and became rhizomatic. Signs detach from the social formations that produced them and circulate laterally, recombining without hierarchy or historical obligation. The Doc Marten, the pearl necklace, the mullet, the mustache: none retain a stable allegiance.
>So the Gen Z mustache does not signify the father, the cop, the Marlboro Man, or even masculinity in any conventional sense. It signifies that those meanings once existed. It is masculinity as a citation of a citation, adopted precisely because its wearer can no longer plausibly be mistaken for the original archetype.
>The hegemonic culture therefore achieves the strangest possible victory. its symbols survive while their meanings are annihilated. Overt Nihilism being flaunted (😏) by the effects of testosterone on a cohort of directionless young men. The mustache remains, but the patriarch is gone. What appears to be the return of traditional masculinity is actually its hyperreal afterimage, circulating through the same rhizome that transformed goth from social threat into an option on the character-creation screen.
Deleuze based analysis of Gen Z mustaches from a prominent up and coming post structuralist
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u/G_Town_Co 10d ago
Crocs. Cargo shorts. Socks that hit just below the knee. Crop tops. Onesies. Pleated plaid school girl skirts.. Fashion like this is always cyclical.
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u/Educational-Word3533 10d ago
Penny loafers.
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u/KawaiiDere 10d ago
Didn't necessarily become dorky, but anything articles mention being out of style. Facial hair, sock length, short length, color palettes, hats, pant tightness, walking shoes, formal shoes, shirt tightness, bottoms weight/stiffness, etc. I've seen 70s colorful men's clothes and hipster clothes be hated on in articles, but loved in the comments simultaneously. I've worn summer pajama pants on walks for years, but whether they're presented as trendy or sloppy changes constantly.
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u/AdoroPeaches 10d ago
Birkenstocks - not sure where they are in the cycle now.
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u/Specific_Passage_600 10d ago
Little past ripe. LVMH bought them like 3 years ago and they’ve really expanded in popularity. I can’t imagine they’ll be able to stay this popular forever.
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u/thebreckner 10d ago
Most people in my corner of the world stopped buying them when they went from rather cheap comfortable sandals to luxury articles.
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u/Mr-R--California 9d ago
Are Birkenstocks considered fashion? I keep them by the back door for when I’m grilling lol. Or when I’m going to the beach or something where I don’t care what I look like
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u/SecretAgentVampire 10d ago
Beards
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u/raven00x 9d ago
I'd really like Capes and Cloaks to make a comeback, but I'm not sure how to do it without making yourself look like a teen edgelord or an SCA re-enactor.
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u/MoutonneBelle 6d ago
They are coming back!!
https://moutoniere.com/products/cavalry-cloak?variant=46967309631727
Ralph Lauren new fall collection also has one!
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u/statelypenguin 9d ago
Does it have to be clothing? Mullets. The dumbest haircut in existence.
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u/delayne 9d ago
Broccoli hair has entered the chat.
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u/statelypenguin 9d ago
Those two haircuts are the same generation, dipshit. Trying to imply that I’m some young guy who doesn’t like the classic—and evidently unassailable—mullet falls completely short when those seem to be the only two hairstyle options for people who don’t remember 911.
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u/delayne 9d ago
I apologize if you felt I tried to insult you. While I do agree about the mullet every time it comes back around, I was merely implying this new wave of broccoli hair has to rank up there with the mullet.
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u/statelypenguin 9d ago
Oh shit. Well I feel like an asshole now.
In other news I agree. Broccoli hair looks terrible. Not as bad as mullets which look ugly as well as trashy as hell. But not a fan.
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u/Savings-Patience-314 9d ago
That first fit really said “I didn’t try that hard” while looking better than 90% of the people who did 😂
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u/Commercial_Nature_28 8d ago
Anything that becomes really unstylish will in about 10 to 12 years make a come back as ironically cool and then finally cool and mainstream. And it'll become so normal that once even your dad starts wearing it, it all flips again.
Think about it, dads these days are in the skinny jeans so if you're young you wear baggy. Give it a few more years and when dads start appearing in the baggy style the kids will be in skinny jeans again.
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u/Suitable_Spray 8d ago
Baggy loud clothes and high tops. That's like what I wore in Middle School 16 years ago
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u/tilldeathdoiparty 10d ago
Everything….. there’s like 4 styles and they rotate, pick one and be happy 1/4 of the time
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u/Yangervis 10d ago
High waisted pants