The 1900’s: facial hair and three-piece suits
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Starting off, we have the 1900’s. This decade is marked by classy dresses for women and stylish suits for men. Men mostly wore three-piece suits, with narrow jackets and top hats. After WWI, it became common for men to pose in military uniforms. Young men kept their mustaches trimmed and short, while older gentlemen wore beards.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1910’s looked like!
The 1910’s: Hats
In the 1910’s, men started experimenting with different types of hats. From top hats to bowlers, from panama hats to fedoras. Most recognizable is the boater hat, which was made of stiff straw. Men of this decade opted for a close shave, ditching the intricate mustaches and beards that had marked mens fashion for decades.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1920’s looked like!
The 1920’s: More skin, shorter hair and casual dresses
The 1920’s saw a complete shift in beauty ideals. During The Roaring 20’s as they’re referred to, men started wearing suit pants with cuffs and jackets with smaller lapels than those of jackets from the decades before. Shoes became more lavish, with wingtips and fringed tongues. Like the women of this era, men favored a thin physique. They also started sporting brightly colored hats.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1930’s looked like!
The 1930’s: Superman
During this decade, men aspired to be like Superman. It became extremely trendy to have a muscular physique or an athletic figure. Mens clothes during this time put an emphasis on broad shoulders and thinner waists. Also popular was a military-inspired look, and so were high-waisted pleated pants. When men went out and wanted to dress fancy, the long-tailed tuxedo was the way to go.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1940’s looked like!
The 1940’s: Strong, muscular chests
In the 40’s, men stepped away more and more from traditional suits, instead choosing to wear sports coats, trousers and sweaters on some occasions. A typical outfit of the time was just a pair of dress pants and a shirt, without the jacket. The clothing was meant to emphasize their figures; actors like Clark Gable and bodybuilder Charles Atlas inspired men to build strong, muscular chests.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1950’s looked like!
The 1950’s: Loosened up
As freedom returned to the West after the war, the restrictions of decades past were thrown away in favor for more loose fashion regulations. Men wore wore Hawaiian shirts, trousers, loafers and polos. Young people started wearing letterman jackets and cardigan sweaters. The “bad boys” went for the James Dean look. Leather jacket, white shirt and jeans.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1960’s looked like!
The 60’s: Bright colors and patterns
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The economy was doing well, so men were able to shop more and dress more “trendy”. Both men and women started wearing bright colors and clothes featuring geometric patterns. Men wore flared pants, knit shirts, and sweaters. Most of these trends were tailored after a fashion movement which had originated in the United Kingdom: “Mod” fashion.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1970’s looked like!
The 70’s: Hippie era
All fashion rules that were carefully drafted over the decades, sometimes even centuries, were smashed by the hippies. As an act of rebellion against the system, men started growing out their hair and beards to unruly lengths. They started wearing tie-dyed shirts and other clothing with crazy patterns. The 70’s saw people trying less to fit in with the crowds, and instead embracing their individuality. As far as the bodies under all those vivid fabrics, a more natural look was favored. Health rather than thinness became the focus.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1980’s looked like!
The 80’s: Super-everything
In the 80’s, every man wanted to be like the bodybuilders in the magazines. It was a decade of excess: the bigger, the flashier, the prettier, the better. Young people in this era had more disposable income than their peers of previous generations. This meant they could spend more money on fashion. Individualism became very important. Men wanted to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 1990’s looked like!
The 90’s: Super casual
In the 90’s, mens fashion found itself oriented towards “as casual as possible”. Plaid shirts and jeans, that was pretty much it. Comfort over style. They wanted to look neither too big nor too small. Other popular trends of the decade were oversized sweaters, overalls, and cargo pants. Casual silhouettes were the way to go, even in formal wear.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 2000’s looked like!
The 2000’s: Individualism
After the craziness of the 1980s, humanity began moving into the new millennium with less emphasis on bulky male body ideals. While athletic and toned physiques were still desirable in the 1990s and 2000s—with 1999 Fight Club Brad Pitts often cited as the benchmark for anatomical perfection—the standard wasn’t as extreme as it had been in the 80’s. Just like in the 60s and 70s, the ideal men’s haircut evolved during this period – from matted tips and curtains to buzzcuts and quiffs.
Continue on to the next page to see what the ideal man in the 2010’s looked like!
The 2010’s: Dad bods
Emerging during the mid-2010s and likely as a direct rebellion against the ‘thin and defined’ image of men constantly seen in the modern media, the ‘dad bod’ ideal has become increasingly widespread. A body type that is not defined or chiseled, but at the same time is not unhealthy, dad bods became popular as a far more attainable body image than most ideals held by society in the past.
The 2020’s: Under 6ft
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According to data and surveys collected by Treadmill Reviews, 1,000 Americans were asked to put together the most attractive body types by gender that they could come up with.
Their data was then taken and used to create 3D models to represent what the people surveyed found most attractive.
‘Perfect man’ of 2020s would be just a tad taller than 6 feet with a weight of 187lbs. That’s roughly the size of Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum or Gerard Butler, in case you were wondering.
