Wardrobe Malfunction
Print
Comment
Email
RSS
Twitter
Wardrobe Malfunction
Why marketing fashion to men will never work.
Posted Thursday, September 18, 2008 - 10:35am
"The difficulty appears to have a biological underpinning," says Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys. "Men are supposed to be thinking about other things, like providing, while women adorning themselves has an adaptive function. To market fashion successfully to American men, you have to understand their fundamental indifference to it."
Actually, American men are anything but indifferent about what they put on their backs; the psychology surrounding adornment runs deep (and doesn't appear to have advanced much since the Eisenhower era). Those hoping to expand the industry are striving to better understand the roots of the aversion to trend-driven fashion.
But prospects for a bid to mirror the women's market look grim-which shouldn't be particularly surprising, considering that just the word fashion induces the gag reflex among the targeted consumers.
"The problem with the word fashion is that most guys associate it with girls," says Jay Fielden, editor of Men's Vogue, who reportedly calls fashion the "f-word" to his staffers. "Here we talk about style, personal style."
In other words, you have to trick them-sort of like fooling a dog into eating a pill by hiding it in a hotdog. And femininity is just the first in a line of negatives.
"The idea of fashion triggers off a response of ‘change,' and men don't like change," says menswear designer John Varvatos. "So menswear has to be about evolution, not revolution."
Thom Browne, fall '08 collection
Comments
Men and fashion
With all due respect, this article is really a barrage of cliches based on silly marketing research. American men care very much about the way they look - take the power suit, ties, cufflinks and such.
I've been living in Paris, where any man worth his salt has an extensive wardrobe. The real problem is that there is very little clothing of interest in this country. I live in New York and I hit Daffy's twice a week for their dirt-cheap Italian imports, because the rest of the offerings (Rag+Bone, Varvatos and company) are so bland - dark colours and unflattering cuts. Guys should get to show off their bodies too!
In Paris my male coworkers wore pants so tight that you could count the change in their pockets - and the ladies loved it (as did some of the guys). I dress this way at my relaxed-but-conservative midtown office and I get only positive feedback, even when I break out the deep V-neck tshirt and print scarf for casual day.
The only US designer who gives me what I want is Marc Jacobs - a Parisian resident, of course. H&M and Gap do European lines with sleek cuts, brighter colours and less extra fabric, but their US clothes are as sexy as burlap sacks. Men don't intrinsically want to hide their bodies; it is this nouveau-Victorian values crowd that has trickled down to the men's fashion world. In the 80s everything was tight, sexy, flashy and hot. I wore pants so tight I got lectured on testicular health!
My answer: retire the chino permanently, tighten the cut around the crotch, give us more tapered dress shirts and killer pointy Spanish-style boots and COLOR!