Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

What is going on with men and their cleavages? The huge success of Irish actors Barry Keoghan and Paul Mescal in award season – or at least in the nominations for all the movie awards – and their slightly risqué outfits on red carpets across the globe is being hailed as the reason for a rise in popularity of men opening up their shirts while strutting their stuff.

Apparently, there has been a trend for low-cut male styles for some time. In the last two years there has been an 86% increase in searches for ‘he-vage’ – a combination of the words ‘he’ and ‘cleavage’.

Other high-profile fans of the look are actors Timothée Chalamet, star of Wonka, actor and comedian Donald Glover, who wrote, directed and starred in the Golden Globe winning series Atlanta and co-star of the Barbie movie, Ryan Gosling.

The low-cut neckline shows off at least an inch of chest or more.

Of course, the look is nothing new.

John Travolta was the original low-cut icon with his unbuttoned shirts in Saturday Night Fever, where he showed off his illustrious chest hair and holy medals. That iconic three-piece suit from the 1977 movie sold for over €240,000 at auction last April.

Elvis’s Las Vegas suits were a spectacular vehicle for displaying that famous chest hair.

The term was first defined by Urban Dictionary in 2007 as “male cleavage, often seen when a button-down shirt is unbuttoned to an extreme”.

The style has certainly now been readopted by male stars, many of them Irish, walking the red carpet this season, who have put a modern twist on the racy trend.

Star of Normal People and recently nominated as supporting actor for his excellent role in the heart-breaking film All Of Us Strangers Paul Mescal was seen sporting some serious ‘he-vage’ at the London Critic’s Circle Film Awards with his shirtless tux.

His leading man in that movie and firm pal, Andrew Scott, has been rocking the low tops all awards season, very often in daring white or red.

Pictured: Paul Mescal