Think For Yrself

We're halfway through '07 already, and it's a misanthrope's paradise, to put it mildly. Nowadays, it is commonplace to emphatically pronounce that certain phenomena are "dead" (the term "dead" having taken on a colloquial secondary meaning: over, tired, passe, irrelevant). It's a useful bit of jargon to have on hand; about as explicit, ham-fisted and explicitly ham-fisted as things can get. And it is in the spirit of this unambiguous phrasing that provokes me to assert: womenswear is dead (a la punk rock; a la VHS/the USPS; a la "Turn me on, Dead Man"!)

I am, of course, exaggerating here. One could just as easily argue that womenswear is thriving and progressing. And I do, to a certain extent, agree. I mean, Aloha, Mr Hand!!!

Be Still My Beating Heart.

But I digress. I'm talking about the banal Michael Korsified corpse of women's fashion: yacht-friendly, hyper-American separates; the LBD; "a great pair of trousers"; Carolina Herrera at al. Classicism is one thing; fruitlessness another. There will always be a time and place for clothing that is beautiful (and only beautiful), but shouldn't such territory at this point be strictly assigned to Banana Republicans?

High fashion is an industry oft-criticized for its general meaninglessness (but this is such a blah argument: why does poor fashion always have to be the scapegoat? No one would dare say the same of music or art), and it grates at me how its major players are failing to prove their critics wrong.
So, for the sake of my argument, let us assume that womenswear cannot be revived, that the (not so) wild world of white shirts, denim minis, ballgowns and stilettos is here to stay. The mundane has incredible staying power, which is why it is as such.

Which is why I propose that menswear is the solution to fashion's current lack of revolution. If womenswear is cadaverous, menswear is decidedly embryonic. My point is: wouldn't it be cool if menswear got really, really eccentric? Wouldn't it be hot if men could wear babydoll dresses, short-alls and wacky textiles? Thanks to long-standing gender barriers, menswear is confined to the world of Brooks Brothers and khaki shorts; conversely, it is also rife with untapped potential. My fake boyfriend Thom Browne (digression #2: I read once that Thom Browne eats the exact same breakfast every day: white bread toast with butter and black coffee. How hot is that??) has attempted to address the lack of turbulence in contemporary menswear with his last two collections, fusing traditional proportions with weirdo girly touches:

And I commend him for it, but the immense powers of innovation tend to be nullified by such extreme ugliness. Maybe the steps he's taking are too big. Perhaps men don't want to wear veils, just like how men don't want to wear this.

In my predictable opinion, the only compromise is to take our cues from Saint George Harrison. The Quiet Beatle is not exactly lauded for his fashion-wackjob status, but this is only because of his uncanny ability to make an orange satin suit and tri-cornered hat look like jeans and a white t-shirt. But while John Lennon was seemingly sporting the same scrappy-crappy denim jacket and jeans for the entire calendar year of 1968 and uber-conservative Paul was taking "When I'm Sixty-Four" a little too literally, Harrison managed to cultivate a lexicon of personal style that was impeccable, not to mention impeccably off-kilter. Foppish, dandy-as-all-get-out, yet simultaneously masculine (sorry to resort to out-dated gender stereotyping, but even thesaurus.com couldn't provide me with a more appropriate synonym). George has been my personal style icon for many years (and I have aggressively forced my boyfriend to adopt the same style P.O.V), and I think it's time he gets a little help from his "friends" in the fashion industry. Case in point:

I personally plan on referencing My Sweet George by rocking these kick-ass trousers with a feather-topped fedora and a tucked-in wifebeater. And I'll be sure to tell my boyfriend to do the same.

Posted by Laura in Men's Fashion
Link back to this entry
+ Stumble This! | Digg This!
Contact Us
HOME

© K. Asharya, L. Barker and L. Faulds. All rights reserved. All content cannot be reproduced without prior written permission.

;