Look to the catwalk collections for summer and the options for a touch of old-fashioned femininity are many: zebra-print hold-alls from Aquascutum; transparent voile blouses from Costume National and Ann Demeulemeester; silky tops from Philip Lim; and little bolero jackets from Fujiwara. Agnès B offers large, floppy-brimmed hats, Burberry sequined tops, and there’s embellishment galore on everything from jackets to trousers at Alexander McQueen and John Richmond. Team it all with a floaty scarf from Gucci. So far, so fashion. Only each of these pieces is from a men’s wear collection. Huh?
“Designers are trying to push the boundaries in the way men dress, to present new ideas in men’s wear, perhaps to be a little provocative. And, up to a point, such items do actually sell: silk scarves, for instance, that, worn in the right way, have a femininity to them but in a masculine context. They’re dandy or dapper rather than girly,” suggests Ivan Donovan, men’s wear buyer for Browns.
Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? Are we really supposed to take all of this seriously? While women have long been able to borrow from the male wardrobe, the reverse cannot be said of men; the few such attempts are often seen as shorthand for a certain camp attitude, with full-blown cross-dressers largely figures of fun (apart, perhaps, from Grayson Perry). Only in the entertainment industry have the likes of David Bowie and Mick Jagger successfully dipped a painted toe in the waters. Historically, though, men were once sartorial peacocks. Sombre, sober men’s wear is a phenomenon largely of the past two centuries.
According to some sociologists, so much of men’s position and power is wrapped up in the codes of their clothing that they cannot afford to take risks wearing anything other than the recognisably masculine. Non-sociologists might say, more simply, that men might feel a bit silly in “girly” clothes.
“Whether gay or straight, men are getting more adventurous, but it takes courage to wear something ‘feminine’,” concedes Joe Casely-Hayford, designer for Gieves & Hawkes, whose Gieves range includes “Quentin Crispian” scarves and a nice male take on the classic country lady’s twin-set. “There is an opening up of traditional male roles and that’s coming through in the way men present themselves. Admittedly, this tends to be for younger men who are less tied to tradition and more influenced by the recent 1980s music scene revival, during which styling was generally more feminine. But I remember Rod Stewart in the ‘70s wearing chiffon scarves, despite his macho football fan attitude.”
Call it the Russell Brand Effect, after the stand-up comic and fan of skinny-fit denim, neck-scarves and Byronic shirts (pictured right) who also manages to maintain a reputation as a Lothario.
According to Stacey Smith, men’s buyer for London fashion independent Matches, “Femininity is filtering down from fey celebrities like Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell to the mainstream, and the female/masculine barriers in fashion are starting to come down. Men are more willing to experiment with the idea of femininity in fashion. Look how many will wear colour now. Rugby-playing estate agents now come in and are interested in clothes that verge on the feminine – clothes that two years ago they’d have laughed at.”
Andrew Wiles, communications director of decidedly masculine brand Dunhill (which this season has some very fine gauge cardigans that “a woman could wear comfortably”), says: “Femininity in men’s wear is a trend that’s been coming through and has reached its peak. There is a market for it: younger consumers, footballers, guys in rock bands, models – men in industries with the money to spend on items they may wear once, who need clothes to individualise them, and to whom the stand-out qualities of such feminine pieces appeal. But, to be honest, it doesn’t make for the kind of items that most men would buy.”
Indeed, Wiles argues that the brands themselves rarely go all in with feminine styling. Rather the girly stuff acts as a counterbalance to an otherwise largely classic offer. And it is true that most of the brands mentioned at the beginning of this story, from Aquascutum to Burberry and McQueen, do devote the bulk of their work to tailoring, with its classically “masculine” emphasis on broad shoulders, narrow waist, full chest, dark tones.
After all, brands are faced as much with a business as an aesthetic imperative when it comes to knowing what their customers will and won’t accept. And even Donovan admits the hard-core fashion follower remains “fearful of anything that plays too much with their sense of masculinity, especially as they get older. Such items may work on the occasional celebrity or well-known clotheshorse, but they’re rarely accepted by ‘real’ men.” So no, you’re not crazy, but you don’t need to be horrified either. It’s only marketing.
Where to vamp it up
www.agnesb.com
www.alexandermcqueen.com
www.aquascutum.co.uk
www.brownsfashion.com
www.burberry.com
www.costumenational.com
www.gievesandhawkes.com
www.matchesfashion.com
