Reader Bill recently asked my opinion about this trend and I was happy to give him two cents' worth.
The oft repeated reason for using males to model female fashions is that the fashion houses want models who are tall, thin, and do not have much of a girlish figure, i.e., models who resemble boys. So why bother searching for girl models who resemble boys when you can hire pretty boy models to do the job at lower wages.
I suspect that there is more to it than that.
In addition to males modeling womenswear, the fashion houses have been showing menswear that borrows heavily from milady's closet.
This two-pronged attack on menswear is an attempt by the fashion houses to acclimate the general public to the notion that it is acceptable for boys to dress like girls. (Yay! Good for us!)
The peacock-phobic argue that there have always been designers who tried to feminize men's clothing. That they are an aberration and the feminized clothing never catches on.
I argue that it is no longer an aberration. It is no longer just one or two designers --- Juan's blog documents countless designers showing feminized styles for males.
And it is catching on. Celebrity and civilian males are wearing feminized menswear and in some cases, womenswear. (My visits to New York and Boston and college campuses in Connecticut confirm this; there are boys who are dressing feminine in public.)
Meanwhile, women are dressing less feminine. I cannot recall the last time my wife wore a skirt or a dress, much less buy one. My daughter is not far behind my wife in that regard. Same goes for the women I work with; they very seldom wear skirted garments. When I do outreach, the female college students often comment when they see me all dolled up that they don't own a single dress or a single pair of heels!
Since the sales of feminine items to females is weakening, the sellers are more than happy to sell feminine items to males to take up the slack in sales to women. So it is in their economic interest to encourage boys to dress like girls.
A dollar is a dollar is a dollar, whether it comes from a male wallet or purse.
Male model Vd Dolgolevets modeling menswear and/or womenswear.
Wearing Tibi.
Or a man carrying a purse!
ReplyDeleteMy wife has noted that I have more women's clothes than she does. She recently went through some of my wardrobe and noted the large number of outfits and heels that I have. While most of my purchses have been of items on sale or items that are low priced I am sure that my purchasing dollars have contributed at least a little bit to the women's wear industry.
ReplyDeletePat