Home Fashion The descent of the male model.

The descent of the male model.

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The current breed of male models.

Intrigued I made a phone call to Mr Zari Awodein, seasoned fashion buyer for the iconic house Issey Miyake and fashion industry insider who had this to relate to me.

“You have to realize that the fashion industry has gone through a very turbulent time. There was a time the industry was searching for a new direction, a new way to embolden sales and that’s when Hedi Slimane, artistic genius who was first brought into the fashion industry to carry the mantel. When Hedi first arrived at YSL (Yves Saint Lauren) he imposed his own homo erotic aesthetic aspirations into his designs. Out came overt masculinity and in came the depiction of young men who resembled the fantasied ideal of a particular audience. It was a look that was very well received and turned the male fashion industry into a new epoch. Once Hedi moved onto Rive gauche homme and Christian Dior homme it was a look that by now was being institutionalized. By then you had everyone coming aboard to create this ideal that men could appear as effeminate rock stars aka David Bowie. Yet I think what makes it more ironic for me personally is that the man who created this look- Hedi Slimane, is no longer in the fashion industry and has turned once again to pursue his own artistic ventures.”

Current cultural landscape

How ironic indeed, that the man who started the prevailing trend has jumped off the bandwagon that the masses are steering over the ravine.

“What’s perverse is watching customers coming to the showroom, enticed by what’s on the shelves but paradoxically unable to fit into the outfits that most fashion houses display. It’s even more perverse to think that the buyers who can afford the clothes are men who are much older than the models modeling the clothes and of course more filled out as a consequence of their age. After all how many boys can afford a $2000 suit?”


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