Critical Studies in Men's Fashion - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2013

It is difficult to disentangle masculinity from military uniforms. Amid the shifting notions of gender in the late eighteenth century, this article argues that ‘techniques of the body’ were employed by the military, contributing to what became the hegemonic shape of the modern male body. Framing the work within the theories of Marcel Mauss this article uses the case study of Beau Brummell to argue that this dandy based his dress on something more than the vestmentary surface. Brummell’s story is rare for a male in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century: his life was described through his dress practices. Traditionally, when fashion is discussed, it is through women’s fashion, although this is rapidly shifting. Very little writing on military uniforms is about embodied practice. Dressing is an embodied activity located in specified temporal, spatial and hierarchical relations. This article addresses this gap.

Palm Beach, Florida in winter was ideal for luxury pastimes of the social elite and, equally important, an opportunity to see and be seen in the latest leisurewear. Journalists documented the habits and styles of millionaires and movie stars. This information was both society news and fashion direction to the menswear industry. The newest ideas in men’s beachwear from luxury resorts in Florida and Europe ultimately influenced beachwear in retail stores throughout America. Photographs and descriptions in menswear publications of resort wear were compared to the textiles and garments I examined at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT), New York and the Hampshire Museum Collections, United Kingdom. Men who dressed for business in constrained clothes transformed into peacocks in the sands with no concern for appearing less than masculine. Flamboyant dress in this period reflected an exceptional use of colourful robes, pyjamas and bathing suits often with extravagant patterns.

This article takes a critical examination of how merchandising inspired by popular culture communicates various notions of history, and in this case, to display and sell heritage fashion lines. In specific retail locations popular and historically cultural-influenced visual displays and aesthetic merchandising strategies are studied to ascertain and interpret the importance of visual display as one vehicle of fashion branding. A careful interpretive analysis, determines that retailers associate cultural-influenced thematic props and icons reflective of America culture to sell men’s mass-fashion garments and give them an aura of authenticity and American heritage. These displays and the branding stories convey conceptual (pop) cultural masculine icons or noted historical memes of US historical masculine imagery that include such male icons as the rebel, the cowboy, the Ivy Leaguer, jocks and blue-collar workers, revealing how these worn styles have infused into American culture and men’s mass fashion as contemporary street style.

This article postulates that although skirts for men are more acceptable today, they still cut a controversial figure. For the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute Gala in 2011, American designer Marc Jacobs wore a transparent button-down tunic that problematized the discourses on gender and clothing. In this article, Jacobs’s ensemble, created by Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, is analyzed through the following concepts: the western dress code that requires men to wear tuxedos at ceremonial functions; the lace as a feminine textile; the unisex looks that appeared in the 1960s; and the gender-bending styles of cross-dressers, drag performers and gender-fuck practitioners.

The hankie code, a semiotic system of sexual advertising popular among the gay leather community of the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, is described, and changes in both the sign system and its varied interpretive communities, are analysed and documented. This ethnographic study draws from interview data and Internet discussion posts. The mythology of the code, differences in generational perspectives, and use of the hankie sign system among heterosexual men are examined. It is concluded that the system is now used as fashion among a new generation of gay men and as communication among heterosexual men.

Power and Style: A World History of Politics and Dress, Dominique Gaulme and Francois Gaulme (Trans. Deke Dusinberre) (2012) Paris: Flammarion, 288 pp., ISBN 9782080201355, Hardback, £ 28.86/$75

Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion, 28 April–18 August 2013, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island

Shanghai Street Style, Toni Johnson-Woods and Vicki Karaminas (2013) Bristol: Intellect, 168 pp., ISBN 9781841505381, Paperback, £15.95/$25