Peacocks on parade
January 4, 2013, 7:36 pm
A look into the strained relationship between male style and men’s fashion
Victor Deleon; Photo ©Sophie Elgort
In the world of menswear, it has become the norm to say one is interested not in fashion but in style. It can be seen in journalism both venerable (GQ’s monthly column of clothes tips and advice is by the Style Guy, not the Fashion Guy) and modern (the influential magazine Fantastic Man describes itself as “the gentleman’s style journal”). It happens in retail, too – while women’s online store Net-A-Porter is tagged as a “fashion destination”, its two-year-old brother site Mr Porter is flagged as a “destination for men’s style”. Ask most men if they favour “fashion” or “style”, and a sizeable majority would steer sharply to the latter. It’s almost as if men wished fashion would just go away.
And yet menswear carries on regardless. From Monday, the next round of men’s fashion shows takes place, first in London, then in Florence, Milan and Paris, accompanied by announcements that the men’s luxury market is booming, often outperforming women’s; according to the consultancy Bain & Co, menswear sales worldwide are expected to have increased 10 per cent in 2012 from the year before, to €26bn. Men’s fashion shows, however, still sit at something of a remove, with men outside the industry unaware or uncaring of what’s happening on a catwalk in some European city. If ever there is any discussion of men’s fashion shows, it usually comes as ridicule: “Would real guys really wear that?” (the answer is, usually, no). What interests men is style, and that’s it.
To understand this dichotomy between fashion and style, it helps to look far from Read the rest of this entry »
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