Fashion has objectified masculinity till it feels queasy, the results of obsession are seldom healthy. But is fashion tough enough ? The period of extreme whimsy menswear has just suffered hasn’t helped; archive trawling that began as a liberating jolt of energy eventually turned into a trap. Nor has the deployment of the strongest engines in fashion to regenerate luxury houses. As signature styles were defined in a modern context, it felt inevitably as if old men’s clothes were just being remade for boys. Such nostalgia hasn’t been a friend of macho.After aeons of whimsical plunder, there are scant old brands to revamp. That means one of the main arteries of nostalgia has been severed. We’re free from old pretending to be as exciting as new ! At the same time, certain designers working under their own names - McQueen or Galliano, for instance – have suddenly snapped back to life. After years of being pushed aside by the luxury-label juggernaut, fashion itself, the ideas and inspirations of an individual, has become a driving force, as opposed to a designer re-imagining the work of those before them.
There’s butch bluster in the extreme pioneering work done by those starting afresh in their own names. Tom Ford has been selling his own garments since last April, and yah-boo to those who were sniffy about his super-ritzy shoppe launch on Madison Avenue. His tactic has been to start selling with no prior media push – the store and the product is he story. This rubbed many up the wrong way, those who believe he should adhere to established protocols. But Ford follows his own rules (instinct) on seasonality and service, retailing pieces for at least a year, and keeping stores appointment-only at certain times every day. Since he opened, Ford has announced major global expansion plans with rock-solid financial partners.
What about the independently-minded designers who work in their own names and guide much of what we actually wear : Thom Browne and Rick Owens ? Neither designer cars if they’re copied or not : both grow their own business with a focus only on what works for them. Their continued defiance is extremely macho indeed. And in genuine fashion combat, you know the muscled and veined Owens would slap everyone else down.
The clothes themselves are often absolutely daft. Indeed, a polarisation between the safe and the confrontational is to be seen, perhaps as a reaction to the times of whimsy we’ve just been through. McQueen’s and Galliano’s shows were powerful precisely because they dared to present their men in such extreme forms. The best catwalk presentations are those that balance conviction with workable ideas. McQueen’s admirers who have drifted should flock back to the store for the return of his wickedly exact shoulder shape. With Galliano, finally his male followers are given fodder that feels as insanely complete as the fantasies he creates for women. And if anyone wants to walk down Hackney Road dressed as a samurai, the good for them !
Once you’ve spotted it, this extreme mood leaps out from the big collections that defined what we’re wearing right now. Dolce & Gabbana’s astronaut opening mood was heroic, and the inbuilt strut that comes with their work is currently especially cocky. It’s easy to find the Indianan Jones in Ralph Lauren’s work, and Junya Watanabe chose Vanson Leathers as his key collaborators, resulting in a parade of motorbike jackets that bring with them an immediate snarl. The jacket themselves are ace. What might prove the biggest crossover hit are the same jacket shapes rendered in waxed Barbour-style cloth orcotton, when on the high street.
Clearly, leather is indubitably, extremely macho. Especially a leather suit. And at Raf Simons, out one came during the collections : a black leather one-button suit, worn over a black shirt with long black gloves, it was the starting point of a considerably tough show. Opening look, too, at Calvin Klein : grey leather v-neck sweater with grey leather jeans. A modern version of leather ? Try the neoprene at McQueen or Miu Miu. A special mention to Ann Demeulemeester : towards the end of her show, with a pioneering spirit, she created quite the most remarkable jacket shape of the season. By extending the label right down to the waist, then curving the line round, she gave the garment a proud personality-filled structure. It’s unusual to find cutting that feels like something new. Although the romance of Demeulemeester’s show was familiar because her clothing is like a work in progress, this seemed like some sort of design step forward.
A quick trawl through other important messages of the season : fierce knits were bulked up and buckled so they could prove enough of an outer layer should winters continue to be so freakishly mild and dry. If those designers have got the weather forecast completely wrong, there’s nylon to stop the rain ! If it’s cold and tough : few seemed interested in taking outerwear seriously. Gosh.
Elsewhere, knitwear suddenly blew up as the focal point of experimentation. From Prada’s fluffy-fronted caveman sweaters and vivid mohair creations to Burberry’s assault on cable knit, oddball jumpers had the most vivacity of all at the shows. Volume was used with confidence, especially by Pilati at YSL, who continues to do his best when he designs with himself in mind. That’s right : working under someone else’s name, but doing so as if it were yours. Yes, scale is one of fashion’s basic tools : if you oversize or tighten up, you instantly get a new silhouette. Because it’s such an easy trick, you have to look out for those who do it with conviction. Too often, the scale is shifted for basic effect, rather than for the way it can contribute to your appearance. On the skinny side, Raf Simons, Hedi Simane and Ghesquière of Balanciaga have all fulfilled the brief. On the volume side, it’s Raf Simons again, Yamamoto and Pilati at YSL. It was Pilati who put on the most convincing display this season, with extreme oversizing that enhances a mannish frame, as opposed to contrasting starkly with a skinny model. This meant volume appeared as an overall agenda, rather than a way a shocking. That it fits with the direction in which Pilati has been taking the brand these past few seasons made it all the more authentic.
Denim has seen a return to unabashed clean brand-new-looking indigo, and across all other fabrics and styles, the overriding color turned out to be black. Even tough no key collection was purely black, it was the groundrock of many, especially 0044.
Will fashion break down the barrier between what the industry’d like men to wear and what’s put on each morning by the mass male population ? because of tedious masculine hang-ups, the relationship between men and menswear is still cloak and dagger. It’s the trickle-down effect that gets to them. But for trickle-down to happen, the lofty fashion stuff still has to take place in the world’s extremities. And who knows ? maybe one day men and menswear will be reconciled. Or menswear has to accept its extreme role as an outsider. Maybe men, owing to an extreme instinct, will never acknowledge its importance. True macho doesn’t look to fashion for guidance on how to dress – it claims subconscious intuition for its clothing choices, rather than wearing yellow because it’s been on the Calvin Klein catwalk. It might be that extremes meet up. Often, though, a man wears what’s appropriate for his chosen path of heroism. And here is where fashion finds its hook : menswear works best when function is somewhere involved. It’s how so many pieces are appropriated from the real world into what’s considered a fashionable wardrobe (take the claps and buckles that litter the front of outerwear; this hardware is attractive precisely because of its intrinsic sense of satisfying design, which in itself has connotations of labor and toil). From youth to old age, the independent man takes control of how he lives and works by ensuring that his surroundings reflect the man he wants to be. But clothing can never erase the path down which it’s traveled. And fashion will soon flip away from this tough stance. This is its wont.
If you know fashion, you’ll realize fickleness is one of its basic tenets. What will hopefully linger is the confidence that comes with an extreme masculine outlook – that maybe menswear can walk with swaggering bluff. Any suggestions as to what a rethought version of being a man might involve ?
