Fashionable Men in Skin-Tight Pants: Shifts in Body Images and Concepts of Masculinity in the History of Men’s Legwear

Melanie Haller’s topical inquiry into the phenomenon of the ‘meggings’ traces its emergence within the history of men’s fashion and relates it to shifting notions of masculinity at different historical and cultural moments—thus emphasizing its performative quality. While skin-tight pants and the emphasis on men’s legs constituted a symbol of hegemonic masculinity up until 1850, the visibility of men’s legs has then undergone shifts that signal the proliferation of ‘new’ body images and concepts of masculinity, such as counter-cultural masculinities of the 1960s and the rise of African-American style cultures during the 1970s and 1980s, which Haller reads within the context of so-called ‘anti-fashion’ discourses. Her contribution also offers a look at the meggings in contemporary fashion culture, thereby outlining its transnational history and formations.