Back in 2014, a tweet offering (questionable) fashion advice for men spread through Twitter’s cluster of wildly popular “relatable girl” accounts—”Dear Boys, dress like this,” it implored. Here’s the original tweet, before it was recycled by accounts with millions of followers:
dear boys,
DRESS LIKE THIS pic.twitter.com/HwiaTOR66D
— Queen Breezy (@briemckinnon) October 13, 2014
Jokes about this actual outfit aside, men clearly need help dressing. It’s 2018, and most of us still need to get our clothes game together. In the year of the Queer Eye reboot, “Dear boys, dress like this” has become a full-fledged meme. It’s mostly absurd and jokey, though. Thanks, internet!
The meme seemed to have kicked off on Feb. 27, with these tweets starring Simon Cowell:
https://twitter.com/PNFRNGE/status/968514755420938241
https://twitter.com/PNFRNGE/status/968656800647208962
The replies dissected Cowell’s outfit, clocking him for his pointy-toed boots that disappear into his too-long boot cut jeans. But then something really funny started to happen: people just replaced him with their own ideal male fashion plates.
dear boys,
DRESS LIKE THIS pic.twitter.com/FGUyVwb0JJ
— sarah schauer 🦂 (@sarahschauer) February 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/JoeJohnsonIce/status/969193210349318145
https://twitter.com/Blaisewell/status/968254012494630912
https://twitter.com/afterwits/status/969220087600287744
https://twitter.com/Drommels_YT/status/968959867875659776
dear boys,
DRESS LIKE THIS pic.twitter.com/KoPAlTY2Ox
— 🇺🇦🇬🇪🇮🇱 that Majin w🌸e | DONATE TO ЗСУ🌻 (@odinvpole) March 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/ohhewantstheP/status/969256494972719104
These Twitter caption memes are pretty common: “dress like this” is basically another version of the Cleopatra meme or “this the ideal male body.” Specific versions of the meme come and go, but they’re perennially popular because the game is easy for anyone to play. All you have to do is pick a ridiculous image that fits the theme–it’s the social media version of Mad Libs.
But why is this the moment for “dress like this?” These memes don’t always need a news peg or a timely reference. It looks like the Cowell outfit was just that bad. U.K. Twitter had a field day with it, and it quickly expanded into the U.S.
Simon’s done us all a service, though. Now we have hundreds of tweets worth of advice on how not to dress.
