I Found The Perfect Flannel Shacket On Amazon — & It’s Under $40

A month ago, I didn’t even know what a “shacket” was — though, as it turns out, Refinery29 had diligently written about the “shirt jacket” portmanteau back in 2016. (Hi, Old Millennial here.) 

This year, shackets — specifically in flannel and corduroy — have taken off in a huge way for these summer-to-fall transition weeks. Street-style celebs like Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid have also cozied up to the trend, committing to the overly baggy look by going extra wide and long in their respective shackets. Peep around at your favorite fashion retailers and chances are that you’ll find a weighty shirt-jacket hybrid on those racks, too. 

Eager to find out what the deal is with this intentionally boxy and oversized outerwear (and skeptical if it could actually be flattering on), I scored my own flannel shacket from Amazon for $37. With a noteworthy hype of 4.4 out of 5 stars and 826 ratings, this Tanming shacket has become an unexpected viral hit on Amazon. What gives? I decided to try it out for myself. 

How the Amazon shacket fits

Because a lot of brands on Amazon have funky sizing charts, I went with a Large on this one to be safe (my usual jacket size is medium) in Khaki, which seemed like the most neutral color option. As it turns out you should just stick to your usual size in this style. My shacket was pretty baggy on my 5’3” frame. Not a real dealbreaker, since this is meant to be baggy, but the sleeves were long. In NYC where I live, it hasn’t gotten chilly enough for thick layers yet, so while I’ve only been wearing T-shirts with the shacket, I can confidently say that the torso is roomy enough for a hoodie or sweater, no problem. In terms of oversizedness, the shacket fits similarly to a lived-in barn coat or chore jacket, but this flannel style is slouchier and less structured. I imagine it’d be a great travel jacket because it’s so easily crushable and packable, as it barely requires maintenance.

Features of the Amazon shacket 

When the package arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by the very soft hand feel of the outer flannel. Even after a spin in the wash and dryer, it’s still cozy to the touch. The inside, however, is totally unlined so it feels a little itchy against my skin — it’s not bad, but I wouldn’t recommend wearing this shacket solo. (Many of the reviewers have advised wearing a long-sleeve shirt if your arms are sensitive.) There are two chest pockets with button closures, two hand pockets by the waist, and metal buttons down the front (similar to the buttons you’d find on a jean jacket). To me, the pockets are essential to what makes a shacket a shacket. Without the pockets, this would just be a thick flannel shirt.

Really cute jacket! I was shocked that I loved it so much coming from Amazon honestly. 

Amazon reviewer

Why you should get the Amazon shacket 

So, now that I’ve worn this out in public, would I say this shacket is flattering? Not really. But, I think “shapeless” is precisely the point of the shacket — it’s got that low-fuss, carefree look that’s part of the overall Y2K trend that’s going on. If you’re wearing a baby tee with low-rise jeans, you’re gonna love this slacker-y, throw-on plaid jacket to pull the whole ensemble together. Because I am in my mid-30s and grew up on Clueless, I personally can’t stop hearing Amber saying “She could be a farmer in those clothes!” ringing in my ears whenever I put this shacket on. But, hey, the 1995 aesthetic is what’s in right now. And, people seem to love the throwback vibe because I get tons of compliments whenever I wear this shacket out. Plus, there are truly only a few lightweight jackets that are perfectly suitable for these awkward, in-between-seasons phases, and this under-$40 flannel shacket is one of them.

How to style the shacket

As of this week in NYC, the daytime hours can still get sweaty, but the evenings have started to cool off considerably. The shacket is fab for those 70-degree temperatures — I can throw this on over a T-shirt and shorts for a casual night out. Because it is meant to look slouchy, it contrasts especially well with cropped and tighter-fitting tops (or a bodycon dress) if you’re leaning towards a cuter, flirtier outfit. I’m more of a relaxed-fit gal in general, so I tend to go unabashedly baggy-on-baggy on top, but with shorts and clogs to keep me from looking lost under layers of fabric. The plaid print can be overpowering so I find myself going basic everywhere else — plain black or white T-shirt, classic blue jeans, and simple shoes. (I’ve also attached my own pins and brooches to the collar to personalize my shacket.) And, once it starts getting colder, I see myself wearing it with a turtleneck tucked into high-waisted jeans, or with a denim jumper or overalls. That’s a lot of options for a humble, $40 flannel jacket/shirt hybrid!

At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. All product details reflect the price and availability at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.

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May The Slits Be High & The Hemlines Be Short: The Return Of The Micro Mini Skirt

The only wardrobe item tinier than our party dresses, short shorts, and cardigans in 2021 are our skirts, which, over the course of the pandemic, have dwindled to near-nonexistent proportions. For proof, see Bella Hadid, twirling in a pleated, low-rise mini on Instagram, and Dua Lipa donning a Thom Browne crop top and a school-dress-code-violating plaid skirt in NYC. Following more than a year in lockdown — most of which was spent indoors, swaddled in a sartorial safety blanket (read: a Pangaia sweatsuits) — fashion as a whole went under the shrink ray, resulting in a whole bunch of skirts that aren’t just not safe for work, but not safe for wind, either. 

The first signs of a micro mini comeback arrived on the catwalks at Saint Laurent, Miu Miu, and Blumarine’s fall ‘21 shows last winter. There, the total absence of maxi and midi skirts sent those hemlines to the past. Reminiscent of the Y2K-era silhouettes beloved by Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Rihanna in the early ‘00s, the 2021 version of the micro mini is often low-rise, fitted, and cropped short. 

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So it’s no surprise that one of their original supporters was among the first to be spotted off-the-runway wearing a micro mini in 2021. In March, Rihanna was seen in a cutoff denim skirt with visible boxers, a tropical shirt, and sky-high strappy sandals for a stop at the grocery store. Photos of the singer-designer soon went viral, causing us to question our perhaps ill-advised decision to donate most of our jean skirts from the early aughts. 

In July, Maryam Nassir Zadeh used her resort ‘22 collection to introduce an ultra-cropped mini skirt design akin to a tube top. Miami-based label Gimaguas ran with it, styling its now-sold-out selection of boob tubes as micro minis, and vice versa. Indie labels like 1xblue, Tank Air, Miaou, and Gauge81, most of which were designing mini skirts before they were ranked on fashion’s “hot” list, saw spikes in popularity on Instagram, showing up on A-listers like Paloma Elsesser, Emma Chamberlain, Willow Smith, and Olivia Rodrigo, resulting in frequent sell-outs and impressive waitlists. 

Also in July, buy-now-pay-later platform Klarna reported a 67% increase in searches for mini skirts, compared to just a month prior in June — a number likely to grow as sold-out styles are restocked and more and more designers ditch the modest hem-lengths they frequented pre-pandemic. 

At least that appeared to be the case during Fashion Month. In addition to visible underwear and low-rise jeans, micro mini skirts circa the early ‘00s were in heavy rotation during New York Fashion Week. Models at Theophilio donned minis made of striped knitwear and red leather, while at Kim Shui, the brand paired leather skirts with TikTok-approved scarf tops. Sandy Liang styled tiny cardigans with pleated mini skirts, and Saint Sintra put tin-foil-esque skirts with see-through tops and destroyed stockings. Together, their support extended the barely-there trend well into next year. 

Given how long we spent in sweats during lockdown, six months (or more) spent wearing leg-baring mini skirts feels like just what our wardrobes need. Plus, it’ll give us an opportunity to finally break out all of the logo- and pattern-clad tights we bought pre-pandemic and consequently never wore. And if that’s not enough to take scissors to your skirt collection, nothing will be. 

At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.

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What Do Fashion & Gaming Have In Common? It Turns Out, Quite A Lot

Model Jasmine Asia has been an avid gamer since she was a child growing up in London as the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants. Although she now gravitates toward games like Call Of Duty, Asia’s love of gaming first grew out of fashion games like Bratz’s early aughts video games: “I’d always be running faster to unlock chic outfits.” Now a professional model, Asia sees her job as related to why she’s always loved gaming: “I never want to look like myself,” said Asia. “I want to become an out-of-this-world character every time.”

According to a recent report from the consulting firm Accenture, the worldwide gaming industry is worth over $300 billion. Games aren’t just products unto themselves, but also provide real estate of which other brands can use for advertising their own non-digital wares, and sometimes even sell digital versions of their clothes. Games like Fortnite have partnered with fashion brands to bring style into their metaverse, offering players the ability to change their avatars’ outfits using high fashion items, style them any way they’d like, and even spend real money on digital clothes. 

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Fashion brands like Balenciaga, Gucci, The North Face, and Christian Louboutin are getting involved. Last year, Balenciaga presented its fall winter 2021 collection through “Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow,” a game that accompanied a digital runway. Set in 2031, Afterworld takes its hero through various zones — a store, a desolate street, a forest, a cave — as it journeys to its final challenge to capture a sword that would return its protagonist back to reality. Meanwhile, Gucci has partnered with cult games like Tennis Clash, The Sims, Genies, Roblox, Pokémon Go and Animal Crossing to create items available for digital avatars to wear. In 2019, the Italian brand launched its own game in partnership with Forestry Games; called “Gucci Grip,” the choose-your-own-adventure journey saw a skater advance through various settings by collecting Gucci-branded trinkets and badges. The game earned not only fans’ approval, but industry cred, with a nomination at the 2020 Awwwards, one of the premiere competitions for professional web design.  

On September 20, industry heavyweight Epic Games announced it’s joining forces with Balenciaga and its creative director Demna Gvasalia to create outfits for Fortnite’s 4.8 million users. The game, which Epic describes as a “world of many experiences,” allows players to choose gaming modes that take them from fighting other players in a battle royale to saving the world and attending virtual concerts starring Ariana Grande and Travis Scott.

And just like in our physical world, style has become a major element of the metaverse. “Fashion is an important cultural element that needs to be part of Fortnite and the metaverse, just like music, sports or entertainment,” said Emily Levy, Senior Manager of Partnerships at Epic Games. “The entire player experience is centered on agency, fantasy, and self-expression while engaging with others.” 

The impetus to make real life feel more science fiction is also happening on social media. On TikTok, the #chooseyourcharacter trend has generated over 1 billion views this past year, with users reinterpreting the famous Super Smash Bros sound into scenarios that make their lives look like a game. They’re also dressing for it. In each video, creators use style to present their version of characters, whether in real life, pop culture, or science fiction, building personas in universes like Gossip Girl, Disney movies, and street style aesthetics. While the challenge is not entirely linked to the gaming community, it’s a clear example of how, much like fashion, gaming is about building personas from the ground up. 

Julles Hernandez, a Puerto Rico-based stylist and journalist, is hoping to be able to parlay her knowledge and affinity for gaming into a career as a stylist and consultant within gamer crowds. As a kid in Puerto Rico, Hernandez played video games like Call Of Duty and Halo along with fashion games like the MyScene dolls’ computer programs, which Hernandez said first taught her about using style as a means of self expression. But it wasn’t until she started dating her current boyfriend, also a gamer, that she entered the world of esports. Back in August, she packed her bags to attend the Call Of Duty Championship in Los Angeles to socialize  with top tier gamers, and get them on board for a unique business proposal. What Hernandez wanted  to do was not only to style these gamers, but to also position them as influential figures within the fashion space, much like Asia has become. 

Asia has noticed her fashion and gaming worlds blending from the other direction. Asia recently signed to ANTI Models which bills itself as an agency intent on dismantling traditional beauty standards. Her agent was less interested in positioning her as a model than they were as a person well-versed in fashion and gaming. For the past few years, she’s focused on gaming crossover projects with brands such as Pat McGrath and Agent Provocateur. For the latter’s “Fearless Femininity” campaign, Asia appears playing video games while wearing the brand’s lingerie. As somebody who grew up believing that her nerdy interests would never be accepted outside the gaming landscape, the project gives her a sense of purpose that most ad campaigns don’t. “I feel like I am a character and just being connected to gaming heroines as a kid, it’s just natural for me to feel like I can portray them.” 

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Men Are Shopping For Skirts. Is The World Ready?

Engineer Mark Bryan was in college the first time he put on a pair of heels. Initially, it was a joke; he was dating a woman who, in heels, was taller than he was, and so he tried on a pair to give himself a boost, too. But, he found that there was nothing funny about how he felt in them. “I was very comfortable wearing them,” he told Refinery29. So much so that, five years ago, Bryan started wearing heels full-time. Then came the skirts. “The skirt is just an extension of, basically, being able to show off the heels a bit more,” he said. 

Today, Bryan boasts over 500,000 followers on Instagram, where he documents his daily outfits, which often include a shirt-and-tie combo with pencil skirts and pumps. “I never bother about what people think because to me I’m not doing anything wrong,” he said. 

It seems that 2021 agrees with Bryan. This year, global fashion search site Lyst reported that a Thom Browne menswear skirt was one of the top-searched items of 2021, marking the first time the silhouette has been on the site’s top trends for men. Celebrities like Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, Billy Porter, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Diddy, and Lil Nas X have chosen skirts on the red carpet and in music videos. Just last week, comedian Pete Davidson showed up to the 2021 Met Gala in a Thom Browne dress that he wore with a blazer and sunglasses. And while many designers continue to show men’s and women’s lines on separate runways, some have started to erase gender divisions, with brands like Versace and Balenciaga merging their womenswear and menswear in one collection. 

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Despite its recent popularity, skirts in men’s fashion aren’t a new phenomenon. According to Jo Paoletti, an independent scholar focused on the history of dress in the United States, it was customary for European men to wear skirts before the 14th century, when they started wearing pants for ease of horse-riding. And, up until the 19th century, Paoletti said that young American boys wore skirts until they were old enough for trousers. According to her, this is how the skirt became “not only associated with being [a woman] but with being young or not being a grown man.” 

While traditionally menswear-inspired trends are commonplace within womenswear today, society is less accepting of men wearing skirts and dresses. “It’s okay for women to adopt men’s clothing, and that has to do with the power and status difference of masculinity and femininity,” said Paoletti. “For a man to adopt something that’s feminine is seen as giving up his power.”

Jorge Dugan, a Netherlands-based fashion designer, has worn skirts since 2019. He likens the current fight for men to wear skirts to Western feminists in the 19th and 20th century who saw pants — called bloomers — as a key symbol of women’s rights. From suffragist Elizabeth Miller’s early version of pants-like skirts in 1851 and Coco Chanel’s menswear-inspired clothing to the World War II era and the women’s rights movement of the 1970s, women have historically fought for the right to wear a simple pair of pants (until the 1990s, it was forbidden for women to wear pants in Congress). “Society, in general, was not ready for new things,” said Dugan. “But thanks to those women [back then] who decided to wear pants, now it’s normal.”

Prior to mainstream fashion’s embrace of gender fluidity that has made it so straight cis men like Styles, Machine Gun Kelly, and Lil Nas X wear skirts in magazines and red carpets, the LGBTQ+ community has pushed to dispel the gender norms put on clothes. Yet, it’s often cisgender men who get celebrated for bending them in public. Bryan — who identifies as a cisgender, heterosexual man — said he gets messages from the LGBTQ+ community, who want to talk about his privilege. Dugan, who identifies as queer, agreed. “Heterosexual men, famous or not, get applauded, while gay men are oppressed for doing the same.” 

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Not only are cis men celebrated, but they are also not in danger for challenging gender boundaries. Bryan said that his privilege in wearing skirts as a cisgender, heterosexual man speaks volumes about what’s really behind the men-in-skirts taboo: “I don’t think they are discriminating against you by what you’re wearing, they’re discriminating against you about your sexual orientation.”

“Thanks to heterosexual men in skirts, other heterosexual men can start seeing skirts as normal,” said Dugan, who’s also contributing to this mission through his blog Jorge Con Falda, where he documents his skirt-clad outfits and will soon start selling his own line. “Every man should wear skirts at least once in their life,” he said. 

As a non-binary person, George Tyrone is also on a mission to use social media to confront the taboos around non-femme people wearing skirts. “It’s just a piece of fabric and it shouldn’t matter so much,” said Tyrone. Originally from Cameroon, they grew up thinking that skirts on men were normal. According to them, it’s traditional in their southwestern Cameroon tribe, as well nearby communities, for men to wear a cloth tied around their waist with a shirt. 

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Because Friday ##genderlessfashion ##meninheels ##fypシ ##outfits ##genderfluid

♬ Squad Sht – SUNRAE 🌞

But it wasn’t until Tyrone, who now lives in London, tried on a kilt, a customary skirt from the Scottish Highlands, to attend a friend’s party that they asked themselves: “Why is a fabric in this particular form only limited to women on a daily basis?” They first started wearing skirts at home, but finally sported them out a few years ago. Today, they’re building a community on TikTok, dedicated to stripping fashion’s gender constructs by showing off their skirt-based outfits. They say they’ve slowly realized that skirts on men only become taboo through the Western gaze. 

“In so many parts of Africa and Asia, it’s normal for men to wear just a gown,” they said, referring to the East African kanga and the Southeast Asian sarong. “A lot of the clothing is not even gender-specific, it’s just what people wear.” Paoletti agrees. She points to the use of lungis, a traditional skirt worn by men in the southern part of India. Other examples include the lavalava, a rectangular wrap-around skirt worn by Polynesians, and the longyi, a tubular skirt worn by both men and women in Myanmar.

While other people may wear skirts to express their identity or culture, for Tyrone, the decision to wear a skirt everyday is still rooted in their belief that clothes have no gender. “What I wear is not because I’m non-binary,” they said. “It’s because it’s just what I like.”

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