The fashion world moves ever more quickly and keeping pace can be a real challenge.
History
This has been long been true in the area of women’s fashion, but for men the position historically was somewhat different at times.
Men have always been fashion conscious of course. From Roman, Greek and Mediaeval art, it’s possible to see men’s clothing styles changing over time as do their accessories such as daggers, chains, brooches, rings and so on. In the Elizabethan period, male clothing (of the rich at least) becomes very prone to relatively sudden changes and embellishment. Clearly these men were very fashion conscious! This reaches a pinnacle in the 18th and earlier 19th centuries with ‘The Dandy’ – men that spent excessive amounts of their time and fortunes in wearing the latest styles that changed radically from one year to the next or even season-to-season.
Yet through much of the 19th and even into the mid-20th century, in spite of increasingly distributed wealth, ‘fashion’ suddenly becomes more and more associated with women. For men, there was much emphasis on stability and practicality. In the politically incorrect views prevalent at the time, fashion becomes portrayed increasingly as something ‘frivolous’ and ‘feminine’.
In fact, it is possible to look at photographs of men dressed in business and casual clothes in the 1920s and to see only relatively small differences (e.g. the use of the tie) over the next decades of the 30s, 40s and 50s as austerity and war add to the existing tendency to play down ‘male fashions’.
This is a big generalization and of course male fashion evolution didn’t cease to exist but few would argue that it was substantially re-invented and given a huge boost during the 1950s, 60s and onwards.
Men’s Fashion Today
Today, male fashions change with the same frequency as those of women. Keeping up is far from easy, not only financially, but also in terms of obtaining information on what’s currently ‘trendy’.
Perhaps one the largest changes from previous decades, arises from the demographic spread of fashion. It’s not the preserve of the rich and affluent any longer.
Sure, if you want the very latest top-designer label strait off the catwalks in Paris, Milan, London or New York, well, expect to start signing some serious checks! Yet many of the top fashion houses have grasped that they can’t survive on selling only 5 items a year to the super-rich and as a result they now produce a range of very stylish and high-quality clothes aimed at the consumer of more modest means. Many of these are sold through downtown outlets, retail chains or the Internet – though keeping an eye open for fakes and rip-offs is usually a smart idea.
Men’s Fashion Stores & Magazines
Here’s a few hand-picked suggestions on further reading:
- Men Style: News, forums and articles on men’s fashion.
- Men’s Flair – online fashion magazine.
- GQ Magazine – The fashion section of teh popular GQ lifetyle magazine.
- TopMan: TopMan is a leading mens fashion retailer.
- Urban Outfitters – Men’s and women’s fashion outlet.
- Twin Taylors – Big list of fashion stores and sites, including Saks, Zappos, Diesel Jeans, and more.
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