I have officially started my second semester of college. After a moment of departure from my classes, I have returned to Chicago to continue with my studies and focus myself on developing my craft and meeting new people. I have new ideas for this blog, like turning it into a place where fashion design students from Columbia (and even other colleges within Chicago) can have their work broadcasted. As a young student, I am amazed to see what my colleagues are already doing with their creative work and wish to capture it for a wider audience and to create an archive for my findings. I am also excited to say that I'm arranging to be featured in The Columbia Chronicle, Columbia College's award-winning newspaper. I will interviewed about being a man who wears makeup and the challenges that come with it. I am very excited about this semester, particularly because of the increased confidence I have and the creative freedom I have been given.
There is no doubt about the constant, constant, constant changes within politics, fashion, and culture as a whole. However, there are moments that remind me that artistic substance still exists despite constant change. Sarah Burton's fall menswear collection for Alexander McQueen was an expedition that proved pomp and circumstance can still exist in this age of technology and leisure. Throughout these men's fashion weeks, I have seen collection after collection trying too hard to push banal, thoughtless ideas about masculinity and the future of fashion. Sportswear and ease have taken over. Perhaps that is the spirit of our times, which I respect and understand. However, Alexander McQueen is an educational and rich brand. Rather than trying too hard to please the buyers and the media, Sarah Burton and the entire Alexander McQueen team have decided to create something that defines modern opulence for menswear. Oscar Wilde, where the collection draws most of its inspiration, was a writer who opted to live his life in search of the most romantic and beautiful things he could get his hands on. No doubt an aesthete, Wilde cloaked himself in Victorian fur capes, gem incrusted tie pins, and lush embroidery on any surface he found applicable. His philosophy obviously came through in his writing, when he often described the beauty of floral gardens, velvety interior design, and intricate oil paintings. This lushness translates into this McQueen collection with mohair, velvet, and brocade suiting, fur trimmed overcoats, and cashmere sweaters. To make the silhouettes modern and not straight out of Henry Keen's illustrations for "The Picture of Dorian Gray", the McQueen team added elements of punk within. Bondage straps, torn sweaters, safety pin piercings, and heavy, steel-toed combat boots hardened the collection and made it more desirable. In terms of color choice, canary yellow made a surprising appearance for suiting not seen at all on other menswear collections. Of course there was classic suiting colors in black, dark grays, and camel, but they were usually decorated with baroque prints and William Morris-eque details. With all of this regality and ornamentation, esteemed fashion reporter Tim Blanks questioned the wearability of these clothes, calling out their "innate costumeyness". Blanks found too much separation between these clothes and what is happening in the real world. However I believe we need esapism in fashion. Especially when the real world hits us in the head every time we go on Twitter or Facebook. Escapism in these physical clothes are what makes this collection valid.
Charles Jeffrey is an up-and-coming London menswear designer who is "bringing the club back to the catwalk", according to DazedDigital.com. In Leigh Bowery-esque flourishes, Jeffrey takes his brand "LOVERBOY" to create fabulous, gender bending, and new silhouettes for the man. The clothes he concocts are both sensually inviting and seductive. In terms of aesthetics, Jeffrey often references important historical figures like King Henry VIII, Oscar Wilde, and William Shakespeare. New Romanticism definitely exists in the made-up, flowy, and inky ensembles. These clothes can be seen both in London's heavily documented club scene, as well as to formal events, if spliced correctly. That's perhaps the magic of LOVERBOY; the strong, passionate blending of high and low culture into a modern concoction of fashion. Maybe that's why LOVERBOY reminds me so much of early 1990's Alexander McQueen catwalk shows in a way. The performance art audacity and the blending of history and future is something McQueen managed in the early days of the brand. Performance art always seems to be integrated within the presentation of the clothes for Charles Jeffrey's LOVERBOY. The body paint, massive wearable sculptures, and dancers in nude underwear created a theatrical presence that doesn't exist at most fashion shows, especially at a menswear show. LOVERBOY by Charles Jeffery is really pushing the boundaries of masculinity with beautiful clothes that create a future for vivacious menswear.
