Men's fashion

[specialknives]

There doesn't seem to be much menswear that's interesting and unusual without being either firmly placed within a subculture or so ludicrous as to mock the very idea of itself.

Do you agree?

Do men get frustrated with the lack of fashion for them, or is the lack of variety primarily market-driven?

Edit: Album of styles from the latest Nom*D

Comments

[ellebabe]

I don't see how the second part is ludicrous - it all seems wearable - but I do think the choices are fairly market driven.

I have a bio on Beau Brummell you might like to read. He predated the modern suit and claimed to take 5 hours to get dressed.

I get confused if a chap spends longer getting ready to go out than I do - because they generally have less garments, make up and hair to arrange.

[specialknives]

I don't see how the second part is ludicrous.

I just can't imagine real people wearing half those things in real life. They just don't look right. I thought they might be mocking themselves because it's a very urban dandy style they're doing, but the model is a frowny surfer/snowboarder type: totally incongruous to me...

I do think the choices are fairly market-driven.

I suppose that to establish whether a 'lack of choice' to be market-driven, we'd have to establish that the edges of the market had been thoroughly tested eg, past examples of 'interesting and unusual' (but not ludicrous or subcultural) supplied that have failed. I personally don't think I've seen any of that variation, but then, I don't do that much looking.

[ellebabe]

#22 seems to be a very nice grey tweed 3 piece suit with bow tie, I also think 27 & 31 I have seen on chaps, and 35-40 are just tshirts.

The frowny male mod-al isn't really to my taste but he is just the hanger. :P

[specialknives]

This exhibition sounds good

[dj__twisted]

I sometime get frustrated when I look into a shop and see all sorts of exciting patterns and fabrics for women and a wall of beige and brown for men.

If I ever shop in the high-street I frequently head for the Women's sections and shops. I think folks in subcultures sometimes forget that there is loads of good stuff available off the peg in major fashion stores, and that modification is your friend.

Again in charity shops I tend to buy women's clothes. They just fit and look better on me.

[specialknives]

Do you get weird comments? I often shop in the men's section (in particular for jeans) and almost always get told I'm shopping in the wrong section.

Several times I've messaged people who've made clothes on Etsy being genuinely unsure if it's intended for a woman or a man. Responses are generally along the lines of:

*Snort* A woman. I'm sorry I didn't specify as it didn't occur to me that anyone would not know."

Which indicates to me that there is a rigid standard of what qualifies as masculinity even among hippie crafty types.

[dj__twisted]

I never get comments. The local charity shops even put things aside for me that they know I might like. Yes they know I am a Priest!

I shop in the Kids section a lot too.

But to be honest I doubt very many people would have the guts to come up to me and say anything. Because I look like a cross between Noel Fielding and Russell Brand. They probably think I am a rock & roll star. People don't ask me if I am in a band: they ask me which band I am in. People in Glam indie bands ask me for fashion advice. I am the exact point where Goth meets the real alternative music scene.

And no I am not up myself at all. ;-)

[emarkienna]

I do dislike the way that men's fashions are limited, uninteresting and boring. I've often thought that even if skirts for men did appear (or "kilts" became more common), the range would be boring and limited, and I'd still head for the women sections...

Do men get frustrated with the lack of fashion for them, or is the lack of variety primarily market-driven?

I don't know about the former, and the latter is probably mainly true, although it's difficult to find the root cause, in that people are brought up in a world where men wear some types of clothes, but they can't wear other types that women wear. If there was a world where more interesting clothes were marketed towards men, then I'd like to think that gradually there would be a demand for these.

[jotham]

It's really acute with shoes. Drives me ba-na-nas. Maybe I have a soft spot for shoes. Hopefully there will be some kind of Metro-sexual backlash where all these newly empowered clothing-consuming males furnish the market with excuse enough to provide a bit more variety. If I loved you Jesus, I would pray for this tonight.

[jotham]

Oh, one other thing. I've asked my clothes making friends over the years double-ewe-tea-eff about male clothing, they all pretty much said it's really hard to make male clothing. I never really got a reasonable explanation for why this was. What I did get ran something like this: Male clothing is really plain, as a result the cut matters quite a lot, and it's hard to design a good pattern/cut. Male clothing is hard.

I'll just reiterate that is not my opinion, just what I've gleaned from asking.

[specialknives]

Interesting, I never would've thought of that, but it is a very confounding viewpoint, but I think rather typical of the fashion industry! Cut matters a hell of a lot for women's clothing too, only fashion designers seem to see women that don't fit their clothes as having something wrong with them. Hence why women's clothing only comes in 8, 10, 12, 14 (if you're lucky) and men's clothing offers different options for leg length, collar size, arm length... although perhaps this is something that it's possible to offer when the product itself carries so little variation.

[intellectronica]

Terribly frustrating. You don't even begin to imagine how.