So, London Collections: Men happened. It was my first time doing the shows and hence I had to immerse myself into unknown territory, also known as menswear. While I also had jitters having to face the shows without any support (my lovely friend Rachel who usually comes with me is on a 3 month holiday in East Asia to find herself!) it was more the thought of finding words to review clothes that I will never find myself wearing and while I do appreciate a beautiful and well-fitted suit that is roughly where my knowledge of menswear ends.
Fast forward a couple of weeks into me ‘immersing’ myself into men’s fashion and channelling my inner man (I debated whether I would be a slick business man or a little more easy-going English country lad and) and I am standing in line for my first show of the season. I then spend 3 days going back and forth between venues, sitting in cafes to watch shows I didn’t get tickets to via live stream, and sitting in yet more cafes tying reviews for my editor.
Overall London Collections: Men was a rather underwhelming experience. I find myself complaining about how easy men have it to be well dressed. All they need is a great pair of jeans, a nice, well-fitted shirt, suit and a great cashmere jumper plus some other basis and they are pretty much set. It had never occurred to me before that as women we may find ourselves in a continuous state of ‘I have nothing to wear’, yet we should consider ourselves lucky to have as much choice as we do. Yet when I spend 4 days watching what felt like an ever-repeating show I re-evaluated being a woman.
There were lots of jumpers, jeans, jogging-sweatpants and an array of beautifully tailored suits. Yet it was hard to feel like I was seeing something truly original. If anything, there was crazy for craziness’s sake. Much like many of the bloggers you will see trekking around Fashion Week, so desperately trying to stand out. MAN send guys down the runway with wood panels across their faces. J.W. Anderson gave us guys in what looked like dresses, teamed with ruffled boots. Even the models, who must be used to a lot, seemed to have a slight ‘WTF’? on their faces.
I cannot help but wonder whether we would actually want our men dressing like this. Personally, I like my boy to be dressed nice and a little on trend but if he were to turn up at my door in ruffled boots I may find myself questioning my taste in men. Are designers pushing, bordering the lines of crazy, just to be different and not to actually make men around the world look their possible best? I am well aware that creativity should not be bound by something as trifle as the standards society sets, yet is there is point when creativity simply equates to insanity?
It will certainly be interesting to see which of the trends, and more importantly, pieces that we saw at the London Collections: Men will actually make it to the streets of London, Paris, Berlin and Sydney. I shall take back everything I put down on this page if I someone can tweet me a single picture of a guy in ruffled boots or with wearing a wood mask. Somehow I think that is not going to happen, but I am ready to be surprised.
All photos were taken from http://www.londoncollections.co.uk/men