James Bond wore one. Will you dare to?
All jokes aside, the romper is the tog of the season for fashion-forward guys.
It’s the season of the guy romper, and it’s anyone’s guess whether this men’s fashion moment will blow up or quickly blow over like an L.A. summer storm. The latest fuss about these all-inone garments started earlier this month when a small team of entrepreneurs launched the RompHim, a male equivalent of the women’s romper, on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter.
The RompHim set the Internet ablaze, causing people to debate and joke on social media, at work and elsewhere about the merits (and design faults) of rompers in general. And what started out as a desire for $10,000 in funding for the cheeky RompHim one-piece — it comes in polka-dot patterns and pastel hues — has now brought in more than $350,000 in seed money, with more expected.
“We were looking for something different that didn’t already exist for guys,” Elaine Chen, one of RompHim’s founders, told GQ magazine this month. “We think this is a way for guys to have a new option in their wardrobe.”
Sorry, RompHim. The one-piece for men is hardly new. It’s a garment with plenty of history, including its 1964 on-screen appearance in “Goldfinger,” worn by the always stylish James Bond, as well as a splashy return a few seasons ago thanks to the Mr Turk label.
Mark-Evan Blackman, an assistant professor of menswear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, sees clear antecedents of the summer ’17 romper for men, mentioning the flight suits used in the Air Force starting in 1947 and coveralls worn by painters, railroad employees and other working-class men, earlier in the 20th century.
When asked about the RompHim, however, Blackman had an immediate, visceral response: “I think it’s outrageous. Who wants to see a grown man dressed like a toddler?”
Based on the buzz, there appears to be a growing auAlthough dience as well as fashion interest for the look. On the runway, jumpsuits were shown in recent men’s collections from luxury labels such as Louis Vuitton and Valentino. And some designers have been proposing “sets” — shorts and shirts in matching patterns, which offer the appearance of the RompHim but the ease of wearing separates.
Blackman doubts that rompers for men will take off as a fullfledged trend, certain cultural touchstones make clear why it was so hungrily embraced this spring by the media as well as shoppers. These include the current predilection for wearing garments in an ironic way as well as an acceptance of unisex clothing, especially among millennials.
So if you want to strut your stuff in a romper or jumpsuit, here are a few of our top choices. Several fashion brands have you covered (but appear to be quickly selling out of these onesie options) should you feel the romper itch this season. image@latimes.com