The only thing worse than leggings

Just when I thought no fashion trend could be worse than leggings, I learned I was horribly wrong.

For more than a year now, my worst nightmare has been sent down runways and displayed in store windows around the world. They’ve been out in public, and apparently fashion designers still want you to buy them because they’ve been in several menswear collections this year.

In what seems like the cruelest joke ever, designers have found a way to sink lower than leggings by inventing something far worse – meggings.

Meggings, which is an annoying name for “man leggings,” were first seen a few years ago in shows by designers like Calvin Klein, Marni and Alexander McQueen, but they had a notable presence in Japanese fashion magazines during the past year.

In Tokyo, men wore their meggings under jeans, long shirts and, without fair warning, really short shirts.

Meggings were dressed up with suits, dressed down with T-shirts and clearly dressed in the dark with neon sweatshirts and snakeskin.

My eyes are still stinging from that last one.

Celebrities like Russell Brand and Adam Lambert have also been spotted sporting meggings, but on them, they look like toned-down spandex pants worn by hair bands in the ’80s.

I don’t understand the reasoning behind meggings. Men already have plenty of casual and comfortable clothing options; why do they need this one?

Men need to quit stealing fashion tips from us women. They already have their version of the skinny jean, the “man-purse” and a few have embraced “guyliner,” another annoying word, in case it’s not obvious, for “guy eyeliner.”

To begin with, leggings aren’t even a good trend on women. They’re only flattering on a microscopic portion of the female population, and I don’t know why most women aren’t getting that by now.

Instead, designers are making the situation worse with prints and textured fabrics. Even with meggings.

Last March, British GQ’s Jonathan Heaf decided to try out this look at work, pairing a sparkly black pair with a dark blazer.

The result? His legs looked like someone had painted a disco ball on them.

His attempt at wearing meggings also proved that an even smaller percent of the male population can wear them.

Again, the eyes are stinging.
 
I haven’t seen too many megging-clad men on campus, but I’m sure they’re out there. Wear them if you want, guys, but come up with a better name than a hybrid of “man-leggings,” because they even give leggings a bad name.