layers&swathes

Yippee – London is going to have its very own Menswear Fashion Week!

It was just last week that I was discussing with a colleague how London’s men are showing women up in the fashion stakes. A quick walk around the East and you’ll find countless uniquely dressed chaps and very few ladies. This could be for so many reasons but I think the main one is to do with how men relate to the new fashion media versus women. By us pouring over magazines, blogs, celebrities – we are essentially setting limitations to our stylistic creativity, unable to break the mold of leather trousers, jumpers, shirts and skinny jeans. We are constantly and unconsciously being told what to wear. The vast amount of choice has placed us in a style-rut that not not even Louis Vuitton’s SS12 candyfloss femininity can save. On the one hand, we have finally embraced colour but getting women to experiment with a new silhouette, a new uniform is a retailers’ hardest challenge. Two years on and I’m still deathly afraid of the midi-skirt – let alone a pleated midi-skirt in a bright colour.

Conversely, Men, who generally don’t obsess over fashion in the same way we do, are having some serious fun. They don’t necessarily endure the same pressure to switch up the silhouette but just a quick roam around Selfridges’s denim department and you’ve got carrot leg, peg leg, twisted leg, straight leg, skinny leg. And guess what? They are wearing them in purple, green, maroon, citrus yellow and claret red. I’ve seen a whole rainbow of desert boots with contrasting soles on the tube this week. I’m seeing men in beautiful tailoring – and not because they are bankers. I’m seeing men in Harris Tweed and lots of different hats. Men who look as though they’ve stepped out of an appointment with Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane and men who make vintage look brand new. Men wearing bow ties and glorious statement socks. Men in women’s coats and men in clashing prints. In short, just to reiterate, fashion right now is all about the boys.

I always wonder what fashion historians in years to come will make of our generation – What are the defining moments? With gender-blending and traditional roles totally skewed, could it be the emancipation of men’s style? Could the importance of men’s fashion as an industry ever take over from women’s? I guess we are just going to have to wait and find out…

Click below to see these bad boys nice and large – the details are superb.

images via Tommy Ton for GQ, Street Style Aesthetic, t-shirtandtails, The Cool Hunter & The Style Scout