Look of the Week: Brad Pitt’s breezy linen skirt

Leah Dolan, CNN

This week, many of us have been dealing with the record-breaking temperatures beating down across Europe and parts of America. While the worrying heat may have you wishing you could draw the blinds, crank up the fan and lay as still as possible, there are jobs to work and paychecks to earn, and that’s Brad Pitt’s reality too.

On Tuesday, the star was in Berlin for the film preview of his new action flick “Bullet Train” while the city saw highs in the mid-90s. Pitt kept it cool by wearing a head-to-toe linen look featuring a brown skirt, matching jacket and a salmon button-up shirt left attentively half-open by slow-fashion designer Haans Nicholas Mott.

Fans and critics alike took to the internet to weigh in on Pitt’s knee-skimming hem-line, but the jury was out on whether the outfit “absolutely slayed” or should have come “with a warning,” as some Twitter users put it. The skirt even earned Pitt an eponymous trending hashtag on Twitter.

But those shocked by Pitt’s skirt-suit are perhaps too young to remember that this isn’t a first. In 1999, to promote “Fight Club” — a film which at its core investigates the perils of traditional masculinity and the obsession with achieving alpha status — Pitt fronted Rolling Stone magazine in not one, but five mini dresses. Shot by renowned photographer Mark Seliger, Pitt’s photo shoot became a cultural touchstone that put a strong case forward for gender-neutral dress codes. And for any doubters, his international sex symbol status remained untouched, even when sporting a skin-tight, pink sequin dress.

Yet men in skirts continue to make headlines almost 25 years later, whether it be Harry Styles on the front of Vogue or Billy Porter’s tuxedo-gown at the 2019 Oscars. Progress is slow, but the more it happens the less shocking it is. Many gender-defying fashion statements seem to be reserved for prestigious cultural events, but it appears they are creeping into more low-key events and everyday life. And why not? Sometimes, as was perhaps the case with Pitt, maybe a man in a dress is not a subversive fashion statement at all, but simply a practical decision. If you can’t handle the heat, grab that linen skirt.

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