There is something arresting about Mark Bryan’s Instagram and Facebook pages. Yes, images of a tall, statuesque man wearing high heels, hosiery and skirts are bound to be eye-catching, but there is something else that sets him apart. Meeting Mark for coffee on a Zoom call, I determined his defining feature not to be his fashion sense but his attitude, his nonchalant confidence about being who he wants to be, even if that happens to be a straight man who enjoys wearing heels and skirts. At 61 years old, Mark, a robotics engineer for a leading German manufacturer, appears genuinely confused about all the fuss surrounding him, but he has chosen to lean in. With recent campaigns for Vogue, Dazed, Paper and Interview magazines under his belt, Mark is well on his way to becoming a latter-day supermodel, and he has the shoes to prove it. His message, that clothes and shoes should not dictate a person’s sexual orientation or gender, is not new, but since it’s coming from a 6ft tall heterosexual Texas native, it’s newsworthy. Simply put, Mark loves high heels and hosiery, as well as fast cars and beautiful women. He tells his story in his own words …

Image via: VOGUE GERMANY | @BORISKRALJ

“I’m 61 years old and I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and have been working in robotic packaging for almost 30 years. I’m on my third marriage, going on twelve years now. This marriage has been the longest lasting one, third time’s the charm, I guess. We have lived in Germany for about eleven years – my wife is German so we relocated here years ago to allow the kids to finish school here. They are all grown now, the youngest moved out about four years ago. My real job takes priority over what my wife calls my ‘hobby’. That’s what pays the bills at this stage, so that’s understandable. However, I’m really close to retiring so I could start a new career as an influencer or model or whatever. It’s exciting, the fashion industry is something that’s completely different to me, so for me, it’s kind of like a new chapter in my life.

“The shoe thing started a long, long time ago when I was in college, which is like 40 years ago. I was living with a girl while we were both going to college, and she was just as tall as I was, six feet. She loved to wear high heels so, naturally, if we went out, she was always taller. It really didn’t bother me. During the evenings after watching a movie or something on TV, we’d chill out a little bit and listen to some music and we’d do a little bit of dancing or something. But she loved to dance in heels, I mean, she’d come home from school or work, take off her heels, but then if she wanted to dance, she’d put them back on. This is back in the 1970s, so we’re listening to Lionel Richie, the Commodores, and those kinds of slow-love-type-dancing. Since she was taller than me in heels so she said, ‘why don’t you just wear a pair of mine?’ Luckily we wore the same size. After that she made a comment one time that my legs didn’t look so bad in high heels and they actually made them look even more athletic. I kind of liked the way it felt, being taller. And it felt like a form of empowerment. So that started me on high heels.

“Over the next 40 years or so, I went through on and off stages where I’d wear heels; the longest period of time I didn’t wear high heels was maybe ten years. Then five years ago, I saw a pair of shoes and I just thought, man, those would be awesome, I want to wear them. I told my wife ‘Hey, I want to buy this pair of shoes’. She was cool about it but I don’t think she realised that I’d be wearing them almost everywhere.

“I got to the point where I said, I really don’t care what people think. I’m at the age where I am past trying to impress people, either they like me or they don’t like me. And so, I started wearing different shoes, some not quite so high as now. It’s not like I went to work with a four-inch stiletto heel. The first time I wore heels to work, they were Oxford-type shoes, women’s shoes, with a three-inch block heel. I went with those kinds of styles because I was wearing them with pants and stuff.

Image via: @VOGUECZECHOSLOVAKIA | @TEREZAMUNDILOVA

“Eventually I wore a pair of stiletto heels to the office. Gradually, people just got used to it. After doing that for about six months, the joke started going around, that one of these days I’m was going to wear a skirt or something. So on the first day I wore a skirt, nobody was really surprised. Colleagues and staff had been asking, ‘Hey Mark when are you going to wear your skirt?’ I enjoyed it, so I just kept doing it. This is kind of where I am now, I mean, it took me a while to develop the style that I wanted. I typically wear a skirt and heels, but sometimes if it’s really cold and really windy, I’ll wear pants, but I’ll still wear block-heels or lace-up tight shoes. I still wear a three-inch block heel, but obviously I can’t wear high heels 24/7. I think what makes it easy for me is that I have very strong legs and a good sense of balance. So I really don’t really don’t have to tense the leg muscles or the ankles or knees trying to maintain that balance. I think that combination of good muscle mass, and also a very good sense of balance, helps me a lot.

“I don’t think anyone’s reaction in the office was negative, though I’m sure behind my back people were saying things but no one really ever confronted me. I’m the one of the engineering managers, so I’m in a fairly high position in the company. Maybe people are afraid to question me about it. But, over the years, people understand that I’m the same person, I haven’t changed just because of what I wear. I think Europe is more tolerant of these kinds of things, whereas certain areas of the US are not tolerant.

“Once I flew into Dublin wearing a skirt and high heels. The airline lost my suitcase. Beforehand I basically told the client, ‘Hey, listen, I wear skirts and high heels as my daily attire’ and I asked, ‘Do you have a problem if I come to your office (wearing them)?’ Most of the time they tell me to wear whatever I want to. But this particular customer said, ‘You know what, the owner wants to meet you and we’re afraid about perceptions and stuff like that’. So when I called him from the airport and said, ‘Hey, listen, I’m going to be there in 30 minutes, but they’ve lost my luggage so I can’t change my clothes.’ He goes, ‘Mark, just come as you are, we’ll just explain it’. The meeting was a success, the owner treated me very professionally, and we got the order. So, I mean, it was a successful trip, they were just concerned I guess. I think they were just playing it safe.

“As for what’s next, I don’t know. I collaborated with Boston-based shoe company on a shoe boot called the MarkBryan which was fun. I’m not sure if I’ll go quite as far as diving into shoe design but I might collaborate with a brand and let them do the manufacturing and marketing – that could be fun. I’m 61 years old, and really don’t want to start something that big. I am kind of enjoying it, but it also turns out to be a lot of work. I probably get 100 to 200 messages a day on social media.

“My children are grown now but they are all supportive. My daughter’s probably my biggest supporter. She’s the one that keeps me up to date on who’s following me on my Instagram account. I didn’t know that Rihanna was following me till she said, ‘Dad, Rihanna is following you’. My Instagram account went public about mid-October. I only had 300 followers and now I have over 400,000. It’s really funny. I’ve had two women buy me Louboutins, which was so generous.

Image via: @INTERVIEWMAG | @MARK_PECKMEZIAN

“As for fans, I have women that say, ‘Hey, Mark, I know you’re married. But if you ever feel you ever get the opportunity or your wife gives you a pass, please consider me.’ So even though I am married, and I say that I’m married, I still get this attention. But they’re not overly assertive, like men can be; it’s some harmless flirting. Although my wife doesn’t see it that way, she doesn’t like the attention. My job already consumes a lot of my time, I work eight to ten hours a day on my real job. And then if I’m spending another three to four hours trying to maintain my Instagram account, along with photoshoots on weekends and stuff like that, it’s taking some time away from us as a couple. So she’s not really happy about that. If I retire, we may go back to the US. It really just depends on how big the influencer thing is and how long it lasts. People say, so you got your 15 minutes of fame, well, I’ve gone up to 15 weeks of fame now.

“I think I’m helping people who want to dress like I do. Not just men, but also a lot of women who are uncomfortable wearing men’s clothes. Or women who are uncomfortable wearing skirts and heels. I get all kinds of messages from women saying, ‘Mark I’ve always kind of stayed away from high heels and skirts and stuff, because it promoted a sex-type thing, but you’re proving that it’s nonsexual. It’s just a piece of clothing. I want to wear skirts and heels, but I’m afraid of being considered too sexy or something.’ And then, a lot of women said, ‘I want to wear men’s clothes, but I’m afraid of being labelled.’ Then of course, I also get the men who say ‘I’m straight and you’re giving me the courage to go out and wear whatever I want to wear.’ I think those are the people I’m probably helping the most. If I’m opening the minds of people to start accepting that clothes have no gender, maybe the person that now accepts clothes as genderless will start rethinking other things like a person’s race or, their religion or something. It is just the start of maybe something that this world needs – people changing their mindset, seeing that just because people are different and that doesn’t make them bad or wrong or anything.

“The thing I still don’t understand about this popularity is, why me? I’m not the only man to wear skirts and heels. I mean, talking to some of the fashion magazines and stuff, they’re saying; ‘Mark, it’s because you represent straight men, while most of the time people associate men wearing skirts and heels. They’re gay or maybe very feminine. They may be straight, but they’re still very feminine. And you present the masculine straight guy. That, we just don’t we don’t see every day’.”