A Visual History of Guys in Crop Tops

Zac Efron on set in Georgia on April 27 (not to worry, it’s fake blood!).

The crop top fad first started in women’s wear in the ’80s (think Madonna, Flashdance) and then had a midriff-filled resurgence in the late ’90s thanks to the Spice Girls, Britney, Christina, and others. After a hiatus of about a decade, the cropped look returned with a vengeance in the summer of 2013—Rihanna, Miley, et al—and translated into some surprisingly chic runway iterations. Just when we were starting to get accustomed to thinking of a little midriff as chic, however, along comes something we hadn’t expected: guys in crop tops.

Just recently, Zac Efron appeared in a fringed crop top on the set of his new flick, Dirty Grandpa. (The best part? The T-shirt reads “Hakuna Matata.”) And he’s not the only one! From Kid Cudi to Pete Wentz, crop tops have been, er, cropping up on a few different guys in the past year, which got us thinking about the other male celebrities who paved the way.

Let’s begin, as one does, with Johnny Depp. The year was 1984; the movie was Nightmare on Elm Street; the football tee was cropped.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure in 1989 carried on with the trend of hot guys in crop tops. (We’re not going to lie: We kind of want Bill’s signature cropped sweatshirt.)

Prince performed sans middle-part-of-shirt (as well as sans other clothes) throughout the ’80s and ’90s.

Moving into the ’90s, Mark Wahlberg (then “Marky Mark”) gave some good crop in this 1992 ad for Calvin Klein, alongside Kate Moss. Feel the vibrations, people.

He may have been born and raised in West Philadephia, but Will Smith’s ’90s cropped ensembles in *The Fresh Prince of Bel Air * had beach-goers copying the look across the country. (Aunt Viv seems to dig it too.)

Just us or does Ginuwine’s navel-exposing blazer from 2000 seem like something Haider Ackerman would send down the runway today?

Will Ferrell wore an office-friendly crop top and flag underpants on an SNL sketch in 2011. What, your office doesn’t allow those?

We’re hardly strangers when it comes to seeing Matthew McConaughey shirtless at this point, but this yellow top in 2012’s Magic Mike is everything.

Kid Cudi got a lot of attention for wearing this top to perform at Coachella in 2014—and he deserves it. Here’s looking at you, Kid.

Only Pete Wentz would go rollerblading in coordinating neon knee-high socks and a crop top.

What do you think of guys in crop tops: Do or Don’t?