What Direction is Men's Fashion Going?
 

So I work at the Gap on weekends (if they schedule me), and today I was putting the new Men's Low-Rise Boot Fit Jeans on the sales floor. These jeans are $68.00. Over the past two years I have seen men's clothing at several stores get slimmer and slimmer, and generally more feminine. In my opinion some of the stuff thats out today is ok, but a lot of it is terrible. Fellas what do you think about this?

i agree...some stuff is really cool, and makes you look better than the plane old jeans. but some stuff goes over the line and should only be worn in places like europ where most people are open to different things. i know i would not roll into a party at my house with a pair of ass tight jeans wih all kinds of crap on them.

Personally I think that guys fashion is getting more feminine and feminine. It's kinda getting gross. I'm sorry but I really don't want to see my boyfriend in jeans that have a lower rise than mine!

I'm not a guy, but mens' fashion was a hot topic in my Fashion Forecasting class last semester so I'm gonna comment on it anyway. ;) Both mens' and ladies' fashion are being influenced a lot by the Euro-trash look, but I think that's just a phase in the return to a more dressed-up style. For the past ten years or so, mens' fashion has gotten more casual (hence all the baggy jeans and polo shirts), but now we're seeing more men who want a more polished look, especially at work. A guy in my class did a presentation about mens' businesswear, and from his research he predicted that suits will make a comeback to replace the "business casual," which was terrible anyway. I tend to agree with him, from what I've seen. So don't worry about the tight pants...they'll be replaced soon enough.

I agree - a few stores (like Structure/Express) which I used to really like have gotten more into clubbing clothes, and in my opinion, more feminine.

Some stores are fighting the urge to go that way - but many have gone downhill that way.

Just got back from the Galleria! MY, OH MY! You are sooooo right about Express-I was looking for the eyelet lace! A&F-we did a circle of the place and left. I SWEAR they purposely wrinkled their clothes and tore them up...it looked cheap and trashy. UGLY!!!

Went to Lacoste, picked up one shirt and saw this guy wearing the tightest jeans and the girl next to him-well, they looked like the anorexic twins!

We went to the standards but skipped AE and popped in and out of GAP-by the end of the day, EVERY shirt looked the same and very little imagination as far as color shades were concerned.

NICE SHOES though. Have you seen the new style? Really nice looking. Jeans, polos, rain jacket, 2 prs of shoes, 2 long sleeves 2 short sleeves and shorts-put on top of our last little jaunt and he's pretty well set. Banana Republic had some cute things for women though-nice skirts!

WHY are they still selling cargo shorts-they have been around sooooooo long. He didn't pick any up, but several of the stores are still pushing them. Are they STILL "in"?

Gay Gay Gay very Gay.

not trying to upset anyone but thats my take on some of the great new fashions out for us guys. Looks like I am gonna keep wearing my unhip threads

I'm more into the casual businesswear, and casual preppy (Polos, kakhis, etc.)

I still like some of Express' jeans, and some of their polos, but that's it.

I'm a huge fan of Polo and Brooks Brothers, but don't have the money - so I get by with what I can, even if most places are going down the toilet.

Gap is still decent, and you can get some good stuff at department stores - some of the best bets are the outlet stores though (Polo outlet stores have some really good stuff at really good prices).

Collin

Yeah, I went to Express for men with a friend tryign to find him a club outfit. The clothes are almost GIRLY. They had this pink ruffly shirt, no lie. Purple too. More power to guys if they like that kind of thing, but I personally would not be attracted to that at all.

I go for the "causal preppy" look as well, but lately all the mens stores have the "refugee" look. Ripped jeans, wrinkled clothes, muted colors. The one new thing that I bought were the relaxed boot fit jean from the gap. Surprisingly they are comfortable. Justamom the cargo shorts are still in. On my campus it seems that all people wear when it gets warm.

I was watching something yesterday that said that men's fashion is going toward a more "European" standard, which means clothes that fit closer to the body, that are well-tailored, and that men will learn to pick -- and love -- excellent accessories. Personally, I say "Hallelujah!" I'm so tired of the baggy Abercrombie-esque jock/prep look on men.

I'm secretly trying to sneak things like this into MisterMadly's wardrobe.

I really don't go into the GAP anymore at all. Everything in that store at least to me seems pretty feminine. I buy most of my stuff at the Dept. Stores and A&F. Those at least for the most part seem to be pretty "normal" by my book.

Thanks Matt, I was wondering about those shorts!

HA! The shirts are like those from an old SHAFT movie! I swear I saw some just like them in YEEEEEEEEARS past.

We did step into some of the European brand stores and OH MY,
my son just looked like WT??? He too is very casual preppy-but likes his jeans and shorts looser than I do. At least they aren't
down to his ankles!

One place that really gets to me is the Buckle-their employees really try to sell you EVERYthing. She tried to get ME to try on some of their stuff!:eek: Yeah-Right!:rolleyes:

I feel like less and less people are wearing cargo pants - I stopped wearing them because they were always too big on me - I'd rather just go in a regular pair of kakhis or jeans that fit a bit better.

I know by the time I graduated not too many people were still wearing the cargos - I stopped around junior year, and now don't really like the bagginess of them anymore.

Yeah, they've been replaced by less baggier, carpenter-style and its spinoffs.

A lot of CRL tends to find it's way into my wardrobe, with the odd lesser brand of a Brody or Point Zero.

I'm not liking the new A&F stuff. I like the hooded sweatshirt and actully got cool button down shirt, but you're right, they used to be so fashionable and now they are like WTF??

Plus, I refuse to wear nut huggers.

Re: What Direction is Men's Fashion Going?
 

Okay, I'm not a fella but I do know for a fact that both women and men wore bell bottoms/flares back in the 60s and 70s. So I would just say that history is repeating itself but more so for men than women. Guys don't realize it because they don't usually pay attention to where fashion has been and whether it's repeating itself. So it's not really femine, it's more unisex. Hope this helps!!! :D

speaking of. . .i was at the club. . .a very trendy nightspot and this guy walks by with his hair pulled back by a ribbon hairband(he was white) and he was wearing one of those sheer shirts with embrodiery on it with a whitebeater underneath and some black slacks. he was extremely hot but he looked so gay.

when he came to try and talk to my friend, i pulled him aside and asked him where he was from. after finding out that he was from jersey, i said 'dude, you can pull that look off in the city. . .but this is kentucky. . .you look gay.'

he was like 'is that why no girls will talk to me?' i was like 'well YEAH!'

I don't know if you have seen Old Navy's commercial on Cargo Pants. They're going all out on bringing it back as part of the fashion scene.

Thought this might shed some light onto the situation...

courtesy of salon.com
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/200...2/metrosexual/

Meet the metrosexual
He's well dressed, narcissistic and bun-obsessed. But don't call him gay.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Mark Simpson



July 22, 2002 | David Beckham, the captain of the England soccer team at this year's World Cup in Korea and Japan -- quite possibly the most famous and photogenic soccer player in the world -- recently posed for a glossy gay magazine in the U.K., just before leaving for battle in the Far East.

Well, you can imagine the outcry. The leader of England's courageous lads tarting around in a pooftah magazine? Handing our enemies such an embarrassing pink stick to hit us with when the nation is girding its manly loins? Well, actually, apart from a few predictable but strangely muted snickers in the tabloid press, the sensation was that there wasn't a sensation. It was entirely what the British public has come to expect.


You see, "Becks" is almost as famous for wearing sarongs and pink nail polish and panties belonging to his wife, Victoria (aka Posh from the Spice Girls), having a different, tricky haircut every week and posing naked and oiled up on the cover of Esquire, as he is for his impressive ball skills. He may or may not be the best footballer in the world, but he's definitely an international-standard narcissist, what would once have just been called, in the Anglo world at least, "a sissy." Hence in that World Cup game against Brazil that kicked England out of the tournament, Becks was the only English player not to be upstaged aesthetically as well as athletically by the Latins.

In the interview with the Brit gay mag Attitude, this married father of two confirmed that he's straight, but as he admits, he's quite happy to be a gay icon; he likes to be admired, he says, and doesn't care whether the admiring is done by women or by men.






Today's day pass is sponsored by Sprint. One Sprint. Many Solutions.






All of this is very modern and progressive, I'm sure, and Beckham's open-mindedness and "equal ops" narcissism has undoubtedly helped to change some -- how shall we say? -- unsophisticated attitudes in this very male, tough, still largely working-class sport. However, I feel it is my duty to inform you that Mr. Beckham, candid to the point of blatant exhibitionism as he is, is not being entirely honest with us about his sexuality.

Outing someone is not a thing to be contemplated lightly, but I feel it is my duty to let the world know that David Beckham, role model to hundreds of millions of impressionable boys around the world, heartthrob for equal numbers of young girls, is not heterosexual after all. No, ladies and gents, the captain of the England football squad is actually a screaming, shrieking, flaming, freaking metrosexual. (He'll thank me for doing this one day, if only because he didn't have to tell his mother himself.)

How do I know? Well, perhaps it takes one to know one, but to determine a metrosexual, all you have to do is look at them. In fact, if you're looking at them, they're almost certainly metrosexual. The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis -- because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere.

For some time now, old-fashioned (re)productive, repressed, unmoisturized heterosexuality has been given the pink slip by consumer capitalism. The stoic, self-denying, modest straight male didn't shop enough (his role was to earn money for his wife to spend), and so he had to be replaced by a new kind of man, one less certain of his identity and much more interested in his image -- that's to say, one who was much more interested in being looked at (because that's the only way you can be certain you actually exist). A man, in other words, who is an advertiser's walking wet dream.

Beckham is the biggest metrosexual in Britain because he loves being looked at and because so many men and women love to look at him: He's the future, but also a way of adapting other, less advanced specimens to that future. More to the point, he sucks corporate cock with no gag reflex. A staple of newspapers, men's magazines, TV advertising and billboards, last year he earned around $8 million for sponsoring various male fashion accessories, such as Police sunglasses.

The Beckham advertising phenomenon, however, goes beyond the usual cash-in, slightly wooden product endorsements of sporting stars. Becks gives the impression that he'd do it for nothing (except the attention); he's a sporting star who wants to be a model.

david's about to lose his edge
he's on another team that may sink his career as a soccer player
my friends are kind of pissed that he's not on manchester anymore
because they know that he's switching to a team with fast foot skills
and the only thing he'll have going is his looks
unless he's got something that we don't know about

*sighs*
another pretty face wasted

I just saw the commercials - a few other stores are trying to bring them back as well.

I'm not going back though - for some reason I just don't like them as much as just regular kakhis or jeans.

Yeah, Mr. Mox is pretty disappointed about how some of his favorite stores are selling nothing but "gay" (his words!) clothes. We went into Banana Republic and he was like :eek:

maybe we should get the makers interviewed on 'The Man Show'

For fall and winter a lot of brands are bringing in the zipper/military look that's big in London now.

I got to see/ try on a lot of the fall lines from BCBG and French Connection and they're all very military. Cargos, jean jackets for guys....its like they're keeping it "gay" but adding zippers to cover it up. Kind of disturbing.

didnt' guys start the trend of jean jackets though?

I'm not sure, maybe they did....

But these jackets are like, really fitted with all these little details and pockets and zippers. They're showing them with fitted low rise jeans (which I think are hot) but all on one guy?? Add a "man purse" or matching male organizer and that's too much for me.

None of this stuff surprises me at all; mens fashion has been going this way for a very long time--long before this "metrosexual" thing started being the talk of mainstream press. Most of my male friends (gay and straight) wear snug Diesels and black shirts for years, and when I lived in Italy, I learned to spot American men by the fact that they were the only ones wore baggy khakis or cargo shorts.

When was A&F ever fashionable? :confused:

i just wanna know from all the people who dont like abercrombie...what do you think is fashionable, and what do you wear?
i have been a fan of abercrombie for years. starting with the vintage preppy look to now with the vintage messy look. i think if you wear things right then they dont look as bad as people make them out to be.
what do you think?

I think it depends on which region you live in. I think Abercrombie is still very popular with the 15-25 demographic. Personally Im in to the gap because I have 50% discount. "Why pay more when you can pay less."

Quality men's fashion
 

Good preppy fashion, IMO, includes Ralph Lauren, although it's probably pricey for most college guys (I'm talking the upper-end stuff).

What do I like on men? Not clothes emblazoned with name brands, that's for sure. For casual clothes, anything that looks good--well-fitting jeans or chinos with a clean T-shirt or polo. On older men, I like to see Ralph Lauren (NOT Polo) or Brooks Brothers--nothing like a nice suit and well-fitting overcoat.

What do I like? Once again, no visible brand names. I think that's extremely tacky and nouveau-riche (or in most cases, no-riche). If you had to pin me down to a store, I guess it would either be Banana Republic--basic articles in a variety of colors. That's not to say I don't have a few trendy articles of clothing thrown in. I don't buy clothing that often, so when I do, I don't mind spending a lot of money on something because it is fashionable and durable--not because the store du jour's logo is on it.