Make Way For The Nether Navel – Fashion’s Hot New Erogenous Zone

All it takes is a sliver of skin. A suggestion of a new identity to take a man out of his oversized streetwear and into an extremely tight shirt that reveals approximately 20 per cent of his navel. Purchased two sizes too small, these T-shirts cling to the frame and stop just below the belly button, leaving the right iliac, the hypogastrium, and the left iliac region of the lower abdomen exposed. Hot! These erogenous morsels have proliferated on feeds and catwalks – at Martine Rose, Diesel, Miu Miu and Mowalola – where they form part of a broader look that feels libertine, rakish, flirtatious.

It’s a strange phenomenon, because this is something that is simultaneously happening at east London raves and on menswear Instagram accounts (though there are no guesses as to who started the trend and who will end up killing it). In fact, it’s probably already taking its last breaths given that TikTok influencers are uploading tutorials on how to achieve the look, which involves shopping in the women’s section and downsizing a bit. These men are dressing like it’s the 1970s: in clothes that are tight at the top and loose towards the bottom, making them look like wannabe lotharios standing contrapposto at a “disco”.

No more is menswear about wearing drop-shoulders and box-cuts to give the illusion of a wide-set frame, it’s about borrowing from the girls (perhaps Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid) with all their vintage Depop finds, which taper in at the waist and cut across the rounds of the shoulder. It’s a coquettish look, and a chance to flout whatever it means to “dress like a man” without having to transgress those norms altogether. Even when influencers wear these tops as a means of flaunting their gym-built physiques, the look still manages to make them appear like overgrown boys: a little vulnerable, but still virile.

For a long time, men have divided themselves into two categories: big shirt-little pants, and little shirt-big pants. It’s a topic of conversation which menswear nerds get quite passionate about – something to do with the golden ratio of an outfit, which, I don’t know, this isn’t GQ! – and according to the fashion search engine Lyst, searches for “cropped tops” have increased 46 per cent among male shoppers in the last six months. It means regular men (not just Harry Styles or Troye Sivan or Shawn Mendes’s barefoot friends) are campaigning to free the nether navel from its cloth cage.

Of course, this is not to be confused with midriff-baring crop tops or baby tees, both of which have reached full-mainstream-saturation and somehow feel too overt in their intention to cast the wearers as sexy babies. Perhaps it’s a too-small football jersey worn with a grommeted belt, or a novelty charity shop find that just (just) skims the waistband. It is a flash, a suggestion of skin rather than a desperate call for attention. It’s a look that catches you off guard, guiding the eye towards a hidden, sensitive area of the anatomy that might just inspire the imagination. It’s a peek, a prelude, a beginning.