Fashion

It’s always a vulgar practice to name drop and in regards to fashion it is both obnoxious and compulsory. Any compliment on an article of clothing or accessory summons the immediate denial punctuated with name brand validation “oh, this old thing? it’s MAH-KWEEN” or “Oh Yeah, I got it a couple of seasons ago at a sample sale, DEEE-OHR OHME”. The wearing of these brands becomes political as questions of wealth and style savvy spark jealousy. A nasty game that’s best avoided when possible but can any of us really resist? It’s important to realize that act of name dropping loses its crudeness when it’s a name that no one desires or knows what it means. And so if your garment is neither covetable nor recognizable in all it’s sewn in splendor than not only do you allow yourself the pleasure of playing the game but placing yourself well above it. The trick then is making sure that you choose wisely and wear clothes that beckon the initial investigation of its origin. And if you’re really good you can tap in to the brand’s own inherent cache that might perhaps have more to do with good design and heritage rather than any popular endorsement.

A Short Directory of Fine Brands That Can Be Uttered Without Ostentation:

Beretta- firearm gear and apparel

L.L. Bean - waspy outdoorsy

Christophe Lemaire - French individualistic menswear designer

Stone Island - for real man? or for real men?

Patagonia - Spanish northface with more color range

Cerruti - fabulous Italian menswear and textile firm

Romeo Gigli - 80’s Italian label with fun nostalgic takes on the 80’s

Kiton - very fine men’s suiting

Brioni - more very fine men’s suiting

Allen Edmonds - presidential shoes

Florsheim - cheaper version of allen edmonds

Brooks Brothers (excluding Black Fleece) - old and boring menswear (but not if you’re smart about it)

Olivier Borde - Very relevant but small French menswear designer. One to watch.

Zegna - Established menswear firm with a rather nice and newly repositioned bridge collection (Z Zegna)

Henrik Vibskov - Very fun Danish designer with a penchant for old European charm and club aesthetics

Romain Kremer - hot new young thing with clothes that are even hotter

Telfar - fabulous DIY label

Hood By Air - terribly cool streetwear

Nike - goddess of victory

Fabrics Interseason - clever German label

Mjolk - cute boyish clothes from Sweden

Cosmic Wonder - Japanese high concept casual apparel

Adam Kimmel - luxury utility

Carharrt - farmer boy

Increasingly over the past few seasons designers have been syncing up their men’s and women’s collections keeping color, texture, and silhouette in tandem. It makes for a stronger brand image (an asset that’s become more and more difficult to control) but slowly it blurs the lines between what is and isn’t gender appropriate. It harkens back to Cardin’s futuristic unisex outfits in the way Miuccia Prada presented the same wide-neck and abutting hemmed jackets in both her men’s and women’s collections. Or in the way Anne Demeulemeester kept the same stripes, earthy beige fabric, and languid lines in her own presentations. In the 10+ years Nicholas Ghesquire has been at the helm of Balenciaga he’s been searching for a way to interpret the brand’s heritage and yet keep his own integrity intact. When the company began to offer a men’s RTW collection that challenge was tripled in that the original Balenciaga did not design men’s clothes and years of bad judgment with licensing deals ruined any credibility the name could have placed on the inside of a man’s garment (subpar Balenciaga men’s dress shirts still haunt ebay auctions). To forge an identity with no heritage while at the same time fighting back a dishonest and regrettable history is no easy feat.

It’s to Ghesquire’s credit that he plays to his strengths; one of his gifts is that he’s relentless in his severe sci-fi aesthetic creating imaginative worlds far beyond our own. The other is his knack for taking a foreign object and idea out of its context and seamlessly integrating it into this vision. And with a difficult yet obvious look to the past and Monsieur Balenciaga’s greatness he’s been able to do for men what he’s been doing for women for years. Now Ghesquire has taken the lead, forecasting the future for both sexes.

Occasionally I’m reminded of artists’ work that can’t be called current, but which is timeless or, at minimum, possesses some quality that resonates with the immediate moment.  British photographer and filmmaker Toyin blends artistic elements that place her work both in the past and the present, always with a distinctly sexualized perspective.  Her imagery suggests a personal and intimate connection with her subjects.  The recent Bill Henson exhibition, with beautiful, melancholic youth and defocussed light reminded me of Toyin’s collaboration with designer Kim Jones for the A/W ‘03 collection.  The video is below.  Her Cult of Boys series, easily found on YouTube, also provides brief but visually intense bites of her work and her collaboration with Replay gave rise to another great video (which gave rise to the stills in this post). 

She also collaborated with musician Patrick Wolf in producing a music video in the same vein as her Cult of Boys series and Kim Jones collaboration.  Check it out.

Photographer and stylist Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek have undergone a study for almost a decade and a half exploring the sociological and anthropological implications of dress and group psychology. The immediate realization is an innate and global desire to surrender one’s individuality. They’ve photographed dozens of style tribes around the world and containing each subject in a sterile frame. It highlights a pattern of repetition and monotony and raises skepticism in our culture’s exaggerated praise of individuality. The ongoing project is called “Exactitudes” and it could only be a matter of time before you find yourself amongst the lot. Or maybe you’re already there.

View more of these extraordinary portraits at exactitudes.com.

It’s a testament to Slimane’s uncanny likeness to the late Monsieur St. Laurent in which he grabs at street style and unapologetically serves it to the heights of fashion, embracing the spirit of St. Laurent’s all black “Beat” collection (alienating an older and stuffy clientèle) and his 1974 hooker collection (provoking accusations of camp on Yves’ part). No surprise then that three years later after Slimane’s initial infatuation with Peter Doherty and the London indie rock scene that the fundamental components have found their way in the vernacular of the “young” and “cool”. But once a trend is disseminated it must redefine its appeal and adopt a new meaning for “coolness”- meanings lost to the originators of the look and abandoned by those who propelled it into popularity. If timing, location, exclusivity, availability and distribution are any means to judge a trend’s hip factor (and they are) you’d begin to assume that Hedi and his admirers have long since found some new ideas to embrace. It’s in this esoteric manner that fashion serves us identifying those who know and those who don’t.

The above images are from the Dior Homme Spring 2006 collection presented in Paris in June of 2005. The below images are selections of Urban Outfitters’ current online offerings. Urban Outfitters’ internet retail presence ships to all parts of the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. They also operate stores in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington.

Not shown is the notorious Tilby/Porkpie hat which is unsatisfactorily represented on urbanoutfitters.com and can be ordered from topman.com.

Fashion photographer Steven Klein graces the pages of the most recent Arena Homme + with a provocative editorial shoot styled by Panos Yiapanis.  In case this post should suggest anything to the contrary, Homo Neurotic does not advocate the use of firearms… but if these pictures inspire a little shooting of another variety, we can’t say we blame you.  

Fluttering wool that drapes and swings around the body, loose trousers that abruptly flap with every step, and a silhouette that is as soft as it is hard. This is a new kind of dressing for men proposed by only a few of fashion’s smartest talents. It’s about swathing the body in fabric, lending men a feminine touch while all the while keeping a man sufficiently masculine. For fall 2008 designers have tapped into an era when Donna Karan was advancing sportswear to couture sophistication, Vivienne Westwood was channeling historical romance to British youths bored with Punk, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto were pulling a mutiny in Paris, and a young(ish) Giorgio Armani was presciently inclined to dress a budding Richard Gere in soft unstructured blazers for “American Gigolo”. It was the Japanese who brought their alien but ancient concept of clothing to a congested Paris for the world to see. The quietness, the volume, the new approach to cutting, it was a beginning. It was the Italians who brought it into the fashion lexicon.

It’s the Italian look, as some may say, that surfaced in the 80’s and was reluctant to recede as it verged on the obscene into the 90’s, creating an excuse for unintelligent and vulgar displays of mammoth masculinity. At its truest it was large but it was sensual and that is the sensibility for today. Layering, wrapping, draping, folding, cocooning, and tenting, this is the new vocabulary and it was Armani, Versace, Ferre, and Gigli of the early 80’s who taught us how to use it. It’s a language that designers like Bruno Pieters and Junn J have proven a driven and articulate fluency in. Allow it to consume you and protect you, to hide you and flaunt you, to transform you into something you have not yet seen.

Regard this as a manifesto as you begin to assemble your wardrobe for fall and beyond.

Michael Bastian | A collection for a mature gay (or Italian) man who’s gotten too old and too proud for Abercrombie and is ready for some real clothes. Genuinely lovely and it looks like Ralph better watch his back.

Thom Browne | A friend and I were having a discussion about Thom Browne and his penchant for large scale theatrics in his shows. It was mentioned that his grand show pieces become gimmicks ala Viktor & Rolf and belie the fairly quiet and ordinary clothes he actually sells. But you can’t hold a man’s sense of humor against him. True, none of us will be clamoring for the stuffed-in bridal look or clown-thug trousers worn at our knees, but you have to learn to look beyond that. It’s been Browne’s M.O. to channel preppy American heritage in the strictest sartorial sense and he’s taken some new liberties. Those ultra low pants suggest a new proportion, dropping the crotch, loosening the fit in the thigh, and tapering towards the ankle - a silhouette that other designers this season are picking up on. But most notably Thom has expanded his universe, known for his suiting and shirts, he’s brought in the element of sportswear in a big way. A tennis polo as immaculately made as his suits? Yes please. And that Michael Phelps get up with the docile sheen? A leisurely approach to the suit? Nothing to run home and slap your mother over but certainly nice enough.

Tim Hamilton | Hamilton designs for men in the same way other designers do for women. His collections are sincere proposals of new ideas and new garments that may or may not be absorbed into an already established system of dressing. With his graphic silhouettes, angular tailoring, and unconventional fabrics he makes an unapologetic and sometimes brash statement. And it looks just too good. Paneled trousers that shape to the leg, doubled breasted cardigans that nip the waist but soften the torso, and his insistence on masculine signatures like epaulets and rivets that frame up the figure rather than leaving it to a tired military reference. It brings to mind the work Claude Montana or Thierry Mugler who worked in a similar way. He looks to the past, historical references are plenty, but it can only feel like the future. It’s such a look and if anything it’s too much of one. Hamilton’s take on menswear is so wrought with his aesthetic it glares and for a practical man’s wardrobe it’s not the most digestible. Doesn’t seem like Hamilton is concerned with such things and that can only be a good thing.