Objectively, my husband—38, cis, business professional—dresses very well. His jeans fit, he wears cool leather boots in the winter, he's got a bunch of button-downs in chambray and buffalo check, as well as ones in pink, white, and blue. He's not opposed to a Breton stripe. And yet, I'm regularly hoping he'll surprise me and come home with a pair of cropped pants or a coat with a giant fur collar. Essentially, confident pieces that, for lack of a better word, could be defined as unisex but aren't things either of us would wear to the gym.
"You should get those jeans shortened to show some ankle!" I tell him every spring, usually adding "slip-ons look weird when you can't see skin." "You'd look so awesome in a fitted denim jacket," is another of my greatest hits, which falls on deaf ears every season. I'm not trying to change the guy—he always looks great and ably shops for himself a few times a year—but rather, I wish he got the same pleasure I do from clothing, or from trying something new, or from standing out.
When the Internet exploded yesterday with headlines about RompHim, a line of rompers for men currently on Kickstarter, I thought they were cool, despite the har-har presentation. The promotional materials are Lonely Island-esque—an animated group of bros, diverse in body type, who appear so downright elated to be wearing rompers that champagne is being popped and cheers are visibly being uttered. One guy wears a white fur coat, because baller. Another walks on the treadmill, because comfy. Another goes to Coachella, because basic.
It looks, essentially, like a joke. Is it?
"We won't be wearing our RompHims ironically, and we've talked to a lot of guys who would wear them with pride, even if it's a bit outside their comfort zone," one of the founders told me in an email. "I'd imagine some people will buy these as more of a joke, and we obviously can't control why people wear them—in a way, though, that's part of the fun of fashion."
Fair. But if you remove the goofball visuals and word "romper," which is ridiculous for either gender, and reminds me of the kid show I appeared on in the 1980s, it's men wearing either chambray or cotton shorts and a button-down that are connected by a piece of fabric. Why is this so hilarious?
