Less than a month after he struck gold at the 2024 Olympics, Carlos Yulo keeps making headlines. Most recently, the world-renowned gymnast caught the internet’s attention for—what I would call—a harmless ‘fit check. Out and about on the streets of Seoul, South Korea, Caloy (as he's fondly called) posed in a cobalt blue Adidas crop top paired with jeans, punctuated by a Louis Vuitton bag and Doc Martens footwear.
While many of us may not be used to seeing Caloy wear anything else aside from his gymnast uniform, it was nice to see a two-time gold medalist dress it down for the ‘gram. The midriff action was a bonus, in my opinion.
Positive comments poured down on the Instagram post, with many applauding him for rocking a piece of clothing that’s traditionally found in a girl’s closet. And I get it. In 2024, a crop top still has feminine connotations for most people, especially in the highly conservative landscape of the Philippines. While I wouldn’t say that Caloy single-handedly destroyed the notions of toxic masculinity, it’s refreshing to see a public figure go out of the norm with his wardrobe choices.
But of course, not everyone was double-tapping on the Olympian’s skin-baring OOTD. If netizens weren’t flat-out homophobic, spewing jeers and mockingly calling him “Carla,” they were more implicit with their disapproval. “May binabagayan kasi ‘yan,” one comment read. Others, through some God-forsaken line of reasoning, found a way to relate the OOTD to his strained relationship with his family. Somehow, throwing on a crop top was a physical manifestation of how he lost his mind after being oh-so-ungrateful towards his mother.
It led me to wonder if people were up in arms about the crop top or the person wearing it (or both).
Men Wearing Crop Tops—Is It Even Anything New?
Funny enough, muscular sportsmen such as Carlos are actually attributed to the crop top more than one may think.
The crop top was first worn a millennium ago by Egyptian belly dancers who exhibited their routines at the World’s Fair. It only gained popularity in the West in the 1940s, when fabric was rationed, and chopping off the bottom half of a shirt was a practical yet stylish decision for apparel makers. It became a more striking fashion statement in the decades to follow, with perennial it girls such as Barbara Eden, Jane Birkin, and Cher liberally exposing their midriffs through their outfits.
The crop top grew to become heavily associated with these feminine icons, and in turn, with womenswear in general. However, in the 1980s, burly American football players—of all people—began rocking the look for their competitions. University of Georgia running back Herschel Walker was once documented showing off half of his torso as he pummeled his opponents and inched closer to victory with his team. The cropped fit arose among these athletes since it preempted how tattered their jerseys would be after an intense match on the field.
Around the same time, the likes of Will Smith and Johnny Depp were also spotted flaunting their bellies as their fictional personas. Mark Wahlberg once wore a crop top to show off his abs for a Calvin Klein campaign, and Prince often performed on-stage with his tummy out.
Fast forward to the 2020s, and even the high-brow runways have been going for some midriff exposure. Houses like Prada, Acne Studios, Doublet, and Balenciaga, to name a few, all advocated for the cropped agenda with their menswear offerings for the Spring/Summer 2025 season.
With that said, many bystanders of fashion still carry the notion that a crop top is exclusive to women, or, at the very least, feminine-presenting individuals. It’s difficult to strip something of its meaning, especially if it’s been imbued with such for the longest time. While several men have seemingly stepped out of the box by constantly donning crop tops, some ideologies, for better or for worse, remain unshaken.
This is why our shared understanding of how fashion is gendered must go both ways. It’s true that venturing into more “adventurous” styles, such as cropped silhouettes, deserves some validation for the day-to-day wearer. In some cases, doing such also inspires a more broadened perspective on the clothes we wear. Caloy wearing a crop top potentially contributes to diminishing society’s rigid perception of masculinity, especially given the expanse of people who look up to him today.
Still, wearing an outfit that goes against traditional cis-heteronormative standards does not automatically place someone at the forefront of the gender equality movement. Doing such would invalidate the earlier struggles of the movement, which entailed far graver circumstances. If we were to genuinely uphold the fact that clothes have no gender, then we should normalize a man for wearing a crop top, a skirt, or anything of the sort.
On the other end of things, and in case it still needs to be said, no person should be looked down upon because of how they dress. To this day, many individuals still become targets of discrimination simply because of how they express themselves through their wardrobe choices. There’s no need to fuss over how other people choose to dress, whether it goes against our initial perception of them or not.
As long as we continue to move in a world that assigns gendered expectations to clothes, a guy wearing something as “girly” as a crop top will still garner unfavorable responses. Of course, in an ideal setting, this is not the case, and a national hero like Carlos Yulo doesn’t have to be ridiculed just because he wore one.
We have to come to terms with the fact that our fashion choices can carry so much meaning, but at the same time, not mean anything at all. Clothes can just be clothes. Sometimes, (most times, TBH) it’s not that big of a deal.
About the author
Em Enriquez (he/she/they) is a Content Creator at Preview. They studied Communication at the Ateneo de Manila University with a focus on advertising and media studies.
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