Blurring The Fashion Lines
January 20th 2008 05:31
It possibly started on a large scale when the male Emos got into nail polish. Then the eyeliner came out. Now it’s everywhere you look – boys that are dressing and accessorising more and more like girls. Many of them would never admit it. The boys dancing around at Ministry of Sound events in iridescent pink tank tops and matching belts still use the word ‘gay’ as an insult and the suggestion that they too are effeminate would likely result in a black eye, and not theirs. Even wannabe hero Corey Delaney, the party kid that the whole of Australia now despises, insisted on wearing massive yellow rimmed sunglasses for all his “promo” shots. Now tell me any man you know that even two years ago would have been caught dead in these other than to mock his girlfriend, who would have obviously been the rightful owner of such an accessory.
This girl-boy fashion phenomenon hit me most recently while I was helping a male friend of mine shop at David Jones in the Sydney CBD. This DJs is smart enough to separate its ladies and menswear departments into two distinct buildings, but while wandering about the man section I stumbled across an accessories table that suddenly made me think I had teleported across the street. Incredulously I inspected a selection of rope belts in muted fluoro tones of pink and lime green not at all dissimilar to those I owned when I was around 10, a time when any boy would have run a mile should you suggest he too should be wearing one.
What’s changed? It seems the rise and rise of the metrosexual male ideology has succeeded in not only convincing men they should take heed from the ladies in the personal hygiene department, but also in convincing them that a girly touch to their outfits is A-okay. Girl-like accessories have infiltrated menswear and everyone seems to be fine with it. Bright pink singlets with orange palm trees emblazoned across them are now more likely to be located in menswear than ladies. Suspiciously feminine zebra print military style caps are readily available alongside tailored Ben Sherman displays. Ornate cuffs that border on something you would find at Diva Accessories are being worn to showcase cool the way Stubbies used to showcase masculinity. Oh how times have changed.
As always, I am a fan of self expression through fashion, but for those of us who like our men masculine and like our fashion truly fashionable, the man parading about in yellow sunglasses and lime green tank-top with matching accessories fits neither category. The truly fashionable man will still be shopping over in the Calibre, ktsubi and Roberto Cavalli sections, which is precisely where you should be looking for him, or directing him.
How apt that it was a band named Blur who coined the catch cry “ Girls who are boys who like boys to be girls”, because blurry indeed are the current lines of what’s for him and what’s for her.
This girl-boy fashion phenomenon hit me most recently while I was helping a male friend of mine shop at David Jones in the Sydney CBD. This DJs is smart enough to separate its ladies and menswear departments into two distinct buildings, but while wandering about the man section I stumbled across an accessories table that suddenly made me think I had teleported across the street. Incredulously I inspected a selection of rope belts in muted fluoro tones of pink and lime green not at all dissimilar to those I owned when I was around 10, a time when any boy would have run a mile should you suggest he too should be wearing one.
What’s changed? It seems the rise and rise of the metrosexual male ideology has succeeded in not only convincing men they should take heed from the ladies in the personal hygiene department, but also in convincing them that a girly touch to their outfits is A-okay. Girl-like accessories have infiltrated menswear and everyone seems to be fine with it. Bright pink singlets with orange palm trees emblazoned across them are now more likely to be located in menswear than ladies. Suspiciously feminine zebra print military style caps are readily available alongside tailored Ben Sherman displays. Ornate cuffs that border on something you would find at Diva Accessories are being worn to showcase cool the way Stubbies used to showcase masculinity. Oh how times have changed.
As always, I am a fan of self expression through fashion, but for those of us who like our men masculine and like our fashion truly fashionable, the man parading about in yellow sunglasses and lime green tank-top with matching accessories fits neither category. The truly fashionable man will still be shopping over in the Calibre, ktsubi and Roberto Cavalli sections, which is precisely where you should be looking for him, or directing him.
How apt that it was a band named Blur who coined the catch cry “ Girls who are boys who like boys to be girls”, because blurry indeed are the current lines of what’s for him and what’s for her.
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