In June 2024, a video showing a man wearing high heels went viral on social networks. The signature stated that this was a high-ranking military official from the North Atlantic Alliance. We figured out who is actually shown in the video.
The author of the 27-second video filmed a man getting out of the car, wearing a white shirt, black tie, gray skirt and stilettos. After walking a few meters to the side, the person turns towards the camera, and then defiles and poses. At this time, laughter is heard behind the scenes.
On June 14, this video with the caption “Senior NATO officer” was published by major Telegram channels Voblya (146,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and “Sheikh Tamir"(126,000). Users posted videos with similar comments on their pages. Facebook, X and other social networks.
Using Google's reverse image search tool, Verified found that the man in the viral video is a frequent subject of social media posts. Some users use videos with his participation in the creation of humorous content, others are indignant “the new fashion for men that came to Europe”, third regretthat they “lost the boy.” The media, including the Estonian publication, are talking about this man Postimees and Latvian portal Mixer.
Many of these posts include the name of the man in the heels: Mark Bryan. He has quite popular profiles on Instagram (595,000 subscribers) and TikTok (215,000 subscribers). The vast majority of photographs and videos also show him wearing skirts and women's shoes. It was on TikTok that Brian in July 2023 published a video that Internet users are distributing with a caption about a “senior NATO officer.” There is no off-screen laughter in the video.
However, the blogger is in no way connected with the North Atlantic Alliance. Over the past few years, Brian has become the subject of large articles in several glossy publications, for example in German Vogue and Australian Harper's Bazaar, and in communication with journalists revealed the main facts of his biography.
Brian is 64 years old. He grew up in Texas and started wearing heels while in college. “I was dating a girl at the time who was the same height as me but liked to wear high heels, so I was always a little shorter. One day after studying we went home together, watched TV, ate and at some point started dancing. It was funny when she said to me, "Why don't you wear high heels if you really want to be taller?" No sooner said than done. Oddly enough, we had the same shoe size. When I first tried on high heels, I loved the way they felt. But for many reasons, including my job, I didn’t think about it anymore for many years,” Brian recalls.
He subsequently built a career in robotics and, in his own words, spent more than 30 years “in the world of suits and ties.” In 2010, Brian (as Vogue notes, “for love”) moved to Germany. Five years later, the American, having found the full support of his current wife, decided to wear heels to work. "My colleagues joked: 'One day Mark will wear a dress.' They didn't know that I would actually do it in 2018." tells Brian in a conversation with the British tabloid The Mirror (however, later he would still prefer skirts). A few years will pass - and the engineer will become a star of social networks, will begin to act for glossy magazines and even will take part at Paris Fashion Week.
“The vast majority of people I meet think I’m gay and get very annoyed when I call myself a straight cisgender man. <…> This does not fit into the mold that they want to classify me into based on my appearance. Just because a man likes to wear women’s clothes does not mean that he is necessarily homosexual or transsexual, these are completely different things,” emphasizes Brian (by the way, the father of three children).
Although in the spring of 2022, in an interview with Remix magazine, an American spokethat he plans to retire and devote himself to modeling, on Brian's LinkedIn profile indicated, that he still lives in the German city of Crailsheim and is engaged in robotics as a freelancer. “Verified” was unable to find any information about the engineer’s work in NATO or army structures close to the alliance. But several publications say that Brian, in addition to his main job and filming for the blog, manages to coach amateur American football teams in Germany.
Thus, the video that went viral in June 2024 with the caption “Senior NATO Officer” was actually published the previous summer by an American living in Germany and in no way associated with the North Atlantic Alliance. This man has gained fame on social networks due to the fact that he wears skirts and high-heeled shoes in combination with jackets, shirts and other men's wardrobe items.
Cover photo: social networks
- Vogue. Alle sprechen über geschlechtslose Mode, Mark Bryan lebt sie jeden Tag (auch im Büro)
- Remix. Mark Bryan isn't just the guy in heels and skirts
- Is it true that the photo shows the former President of Estonia?
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