Men? Wearing pink? It’s more likely than you think.
Earlier this month, a preppy Fair Isle holiday sweater by J.Crew, in an innocent shade of pink, caused uproar online after conservative commentator Juanita Broaddrick posted it on X with the comment, “Are you kidding me?? Men, would you wear this $168 sweater?” Broaddrick’s followers weren’t tickled pink. “That’s how every Democrat is dressing for Thanksgiving,” joked a user called Liberal Tear Creator.
The meltdown comes at a time when what men should and shouldn’t wear is under debate, especially in right-wing circles empowered by the febrile political climate. “It’s interesting that the backlash against the jumper is happening in the US, where a kind of exaggerated hegemonic masculinity is now mainstream again, and embodied by powerful men in government and business,” says Veronika Koller, professor of discourse studies at Lancaster University. “It’s based on derogating and marginalising femininity and other masculinities, and one whose boundaries are very much ‘policed’.”
Whether netizens like it or not, menswear’s leading designers are currently thinking pink. Brands from Dior to Paul Smith to Willy Chavarria filled their latest collections with it, including sweaters and shirts in shades that spanned dusty rose to fuchsia. “The runway strongly suggests that pink is a rising shade,” says Krista Corrigan, senior retail analyst at intelligence platform EDITED.
Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell, the designer duo behind Brooklyn-based brand Tanner Fletcher, find the online reaction to the J.Crew sweater “absurd”. “It all leads back to toxic masculinity,” says Richie. “Women have no problem wearing blue…but certain men seem to be so fragile when it comes to their femininity.” The brand sent a pink sweater of its own down the runway of its SS26 show; the faintest shade of blush, it featured eyelets around the V-neckline and was cropped just above the hips.
The runway remains way ahead of the wider market when it comes to pink, however, pointing to caution among less fashion-forward brands. “We haven’t seen the mass market commit to pink in the way they jumped on colors like burgundy or butter yellow in 2025,” says Corrigan. The data reflects the hesitation, with new apparel investment in pink dropping around 10% year-on-year in 2025. “That said, there are definite bright spots,” she says, adding that sell-outs for pink rose 17% year-on-year in SS25. “This proves there’s demand.” Menswear retailer Mr Porter also reports an uptick in pink. “Pink is something we re seeing trend more,” says Daniel Todd, buying director, noting that brands such as Auralee and Drake’s are doing pink well. “Customers tend to gravitate towards styles they can layer with, such as shirts, T-shirts and knitwear, rather than the likes of outerwear.”
Pink is not new, and has cycled in and out of masculine dress from 18th-century aristocrats to Miami Vice detectives. Irene Kim, Vogue Runway’s production and editorial associate, recently covered the J.Crew story for Vogue, digging into pink on menswear runways past and present. “Since the early 2000s, you can find plenty of hunky men wearing hot pink in our archive,” she says.
Even so, hangups have remained. “There is still a residual feeling for some that pink is more closely associated with women,” says Laurie Pressman, VP of the Pantone Color Institute. This naturally influences brand behavior. Cristopher Nying, co-founder of Swedish brand Our Legacy, recalls a pink sweater the brand sold in 2009. To the creative director’s surprise, Oi Polloi, a well-known menswear retailer in Manchester, rebranded the color ‘men’s pink’. “They thought it would sell better to men that way,” he says. That kind of gendered marketing has become less common in recent years, and Nying isn’t drawn into the discourse surrounding it: “I just think it’s a beautiful color.”
Because of its nonconformist reputation, wearing pink can also take on a rebellious feel, signaling confidence in your own masculinity. “Younger male consumers are embracing pink as a kind of ‘confidence flex’,” says Frida Tordhag, fashion analyst at Heuritech. “Modern masculinity sometimes involves showing nonchalance toward gender expectations. It signals individuality and openness, and that’s becoming a style statement on its own, especially on TikTok and in streetwear communities.”
Pink has become a common sight on the red carpet for the same reason, with suits in shades of salmon to fluoro pink worn by everyone from Colman Domingo to Jason Momoa. Timothée Chalamet is another prolific pink-wearer, most recently rocking a vibrant pink cable knit underneath a baby pink Marty Supreme windbreaker from Nahmias, for the press tour of his film. “A good washed pink can help bridge this kind of balance between playfulness, but also feel clean and refined. It wears really well on skin and actually looks tough and cool,” says founder Doni Nahmias, who designed the collection with Chalamet.
Pink’s fashion prognosis isn’t all rosy. Madé Lapuerta, the analyst behind @DataButMakeItFashion, says pink’s overall popularity has been “on a steady decline since the summer of 2023” (the height of the Barbie movie and its press tour), suggesting that pink in a larger fashion context has peaked. “It hasn’t seemed to resonate as well with consumers. It’s possible that the pink fad in womenswear was just too popular in recent memory, that people still associate the color with things like Barbie, or Pierpaolo [Piccioli]’s Valentino.”
In menswear terms, however, it seems there’s still potential. Lapuerta found that as searches for Argentine footballer Lionel Messi (who plays in a hot pink Inter Miami jersey) increased, popularity of pink did too. “Messi’s presence may be making pink top-of-mind for consumers,” says Lapuerta. Adidas has capitalized on the moment with a collaboration that includes a candy-pink pair of sneakers. Marketed to both men and women, they have sold out in almost all sizes online.
Despite the controversy around the color and reticence in the mass market, data shows that designers shouldn’t be afraid to commit to pink. “Crucially, pink is commercially proven: powder pink had a breakout season in womenswear last year, successfully capitalizing on the demand for pastels,” says Corrigan. “Given that color trends consistently trickle down from womenswear, all indicators point toward a robust future for pink in menswear.”
All menswear brands I spoke to for this story say that pink sells relatively well for them. In recent seasons, Our Legacy has released bubblegum cardigans and pink jeans; Nying reports that sales of pink pieces are “spot on”. Tanner Fletcher’s Richie backs this up. “I would never imagine our male customers wouldn’t purchase something in pink because it s too feminine,” he says.
At the time of writing, some sizes of the J.Crew sweater are still in stock on the brand’s website, suggesting the online frenzy hasn’t led to a Thanksgiving sellout. Other guys saw the appeal: one early adopter was Richie, who snapped the preppy brand’s sweater up the week before it went viral. “I’ll cherish it!” he says.
