A new fashion trend dubbed “old man style” is now taking over young Chinese women’s wardrobes as they increasingly seek comfort over beauty with oversized men’s clothes to combat body-shaming.
Chinese Gen Z May said she struggles to fit into women’s clothes in any size lower than an XXL despite weighing only 50kg.
Like many women in China, May has recently discovered a whole new world; in her case, it was while shopping for men’s clothes with her father. She told Chinese media outlet Sanlian Lifelab that men’s clothes fit her quite well, and she had begun wearing them to “feel respected again”.
In a revealing anecdote about how women’s clothes are being labelled as larger than they really are, user @Waayikou on mainland social media platform Xiaohongshu said an XL size camisole top she recently bought from an online shop would only have “fitted the three-year-old me”.
Many women in China with similar experiences have said no to what they see as the body-shaming sizing of women’s clothes and turned to oversized menswear as part of the old man style movement.
On Xiaohongshu, the #laotoufeng, or #oldmanstyle in English, had attracted 66,000 views at the time of writing.
Female social media users have summarised various advantages men’s clothes have over those designed for women.
Some said the comfortable style of men’s clothes that are “designed to accommodate a man’s beer belly” can prevent wardrobe malfunctions and liberate them from worrying about gaining weight.
For many, the palette of men’s wardrobes features classic colours such as black, white, beige, grey and navy blue, reducing fears about an outfit quickly going out of fashion.
Others have linked the style trend to the popular genderless fashion movement in the West. One woman commented: “Widen your horizons, you will realise men’s clothes at Zara are the same as women’s clothes at Balenciaga.”
Some female office workers have also opted for men’s clothes to appear “professional and mature”.
A woman from Shanghai identified as Azaki told Sanlian Lifelab that she only wears “old man style” clothes to “work easily and not feel bad when they get dirty”.
Another primary motivation for many women is that men’s clothes are often cheaper. On China’s largest e-commerce site Taobao, a men’s vest is priced at around 20 yuan (US$3) whereas a women’s camisole is usually triple this, with some priced at more than 100 yuan.
Taobao is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding that owns the South China Morning Post.
In recent years, Chinese women consumers have increasingly protested against the “pink tax”, referring to the gender discrimination of products marketed to women being more expensive than identical products for men.
