Saturday, June 30, 2018

Ken's Eye View: Fall/Winter 2018 Menswear Trends

Times are a-changing! If the recent menswear fashion weeks are of any indication...I can tell you, equivocally, a new world order is upon us. As a person who has covered fashion for decades..a person who has worn almost every trend, reported on it, taught courses and even presents under the guise of Barbie doll high style--I must admit.... for a few seasons now, I have had a difficult time finding menswear trends I could understand and recreate for my dude dolls. In my humble opinion, the men's trends tend to fall into three categories....1) totally banal, pedestrian and not worth reporting on. (When the catwalk looks just like the racks of the local stores.... why bother). 2) The circus --when designers get so caught up with the spectacle of a show while forgetting the real purpose of clothing to be worn.) And then there's that ever disappearing, tiny portion of catwalk shows offering up interesting and sometimes elegant fashions. Call me old fashioned, but I need to see interesting clothes with  few new ideas--especially in menswear. I do understand the whole gender identity thing but frankly, even my gay friends are complaining about the direction of today's men's fashion movement. After reviewing menswear collections in New York, London, Paris, Milan and Florence combined, for the Fall/Winter 2018, below you will find what I consider to be the more interesting trends of the season.

Note....three new male dolls came into the house this year. All three (Kim, Alessandro and Marc) are millenials. They're the ones with the "interesting" hairstyles!

Capetown

What could be more elegant than a man wearing a cape. We liked the simple, pure lines of this simple outer garment worn over trousers. Making the pattern for this is a snap. (It's the same as for the girls.) Click HERE to see how.
For Atsushi, I had considered making a lightweight cape using a lightweight pinstriped wool fabric. That would have resulted in a more "swashbuckling" look designed by the Italian company, Valentino. Instead I chose to use a wool coating which has more structure, appropriate for a late autumn, early winter garment. If you look closely, you can see there are vertical slits covered by plackets on each side to allow his arms to poke through.

Coat check

More regal outer wear! Coats for him are pretty classic: the standard trench, a straight overcoat. What differentiates them this Fall is length! Supple fabric and even velvet fall past the mid-calf and below lengths for a truly elegant look!

Man About Town
The young entrepreneur and the look of casual elegance. A super big, fluffy sweater over a narrow pair of trousers; the monochrome look of "Men In Black," and separates that mix velvet with tie-dye.....These are all simple silhouettes made from a basic pattern. Note the bags!
Here, Alessandro shows off the millennial take on American born John Varvatos' velvet suit. It's velvet, worn with a tie dye shirt and big scarf over super skinny, stretch jeans and walking shoes!

The Spice Trail
This is a color story. After all of the navy, black and grey, there is color for the guys. Lots of color. At times, too much color, in fact. But here is the color palette to our liking. We like to see clothes for guys taking their cue from the spicy tones of autumn. Yes, it's pretty classic.But these are styles and colors that are...easy on the eyes!
Here Marc shows off how a cool way to wear shorts (over a trendy pair of leggings). His top is cut like a varsity sweater. Personally I don't like the "girly" fabric of the original wide cut shorts. It looked too much like a skirt. So I made a pair of "cut offs" and painted them to resemble "distress" jean shorts. Worn together with the black leggings and the suede boots, it looks more "masculine" and works for my millennial guy.

Livin' Large
XXXL is back. A new generation has discovered the supersized silhouettes resuscitated from 1990's gangsta looks. This time around there is a contrast in silhouettes. Super large worn over super skinny.

The Young and The Restless
These are the dare devils of the fashion revolution. They push the boundaries of existing rules just to see what's possible. In some cases, it's a revival of past rebels (like Moschino's leather biker outfit). But by experimenting with fabric treatments (Louis Vuitton) or silhouette (Chalayan), a new generation fashions it's own signature style.
Again, I could not sink my teeth into men's shorts that resemble a woman's skirt worn over tights, so, for Lamar, I took the direction of distressed, ripped jeans. I did like the high tech aspect of the coat, but quite naturally, did not have access to the fabric. So....I took old jeans and treated it with both metallic paint stroked with pure white. After cutting out the pattern, I layered it with a polyester organza to give it a "tech" sheen.
Back in the mid-1980's with the arrival of the Japanese on the fashion scene, we were introduced to the look of androgyny. Now in 2018, androgyny is back but in a different way. It's more elaborate. It's more feminine. Still I feel, we can do this look in a way that is not totally void of masculinity. Here is Kim wearing a version of the Chalayan shirt. The original has a more rounded effect due to dropped shoulders and blouse-like sleeves. I, on the other hand, started out with a classic, straight shirt. One side is much more elongated than the other. This extension allowed me to drape that side into folds which I hand-stitched down and pressed flat to the body. The sleeves are straight , without cuffs. This shirt (which I imagine for eveningwear) is worn over narrow (but not strangled) velvet pants and boots.

Velvet Touch
Another revival of an old favorite style....the velvet suit is back. Yes there is the classic suit (as revived by Armani) but there are other, more laid back ways for men to wear velvet including what looks like a jog suit with a sport jacket and sweater (John Varvatos).
Loic reminded me that it wouldn't be a bad thing to make another velvet suit! I think he's thinking ahead to the holidays!

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27 comments:

  1. Wow amazing <3 You are very talented <3

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    1. Thank you, Urszula. Glad to know you enjoyed this post.

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  2. Love your choice of man capes and your 'The Young and The Restless' reimaginings, amazing. Layering polyester organza for a high tech sheen - who'd have thought. I don't have any boys, but I could see the draped shirt working for a girl.

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    1. Thank you Karen. What I liked about the Louis Vuitton coat was the sheen of the original garment. Trying to replicate that took a lot of trial and error. And then at some point, you have to stop and realize you are never going to recreate a line for line version. So you try to capture the "essence" by any means possible! With the draped shirt, it was the same thing. This post took me two weeks to do because there were a lot of small details and many decisions to make with each garment. (There were also the bad surprises.) That draped shirt would surely look good on the girls (who might just borrow it from Kim!) But trying to make it look good on a guy took some doing! That's why I changed the fundamental silhouette from round to rectangular! Glad to know you enjoyed this post.

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  3. I love Kim! Is that the MLP guy? I considered getting him during this winter's sale but opted for a cheaper female doll instead. I love these trends, especially the coat and the velvet. I hope something similar will be available for girls.

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    1. Kim is "Tate Tanaka" from The Style Lab goes to Wonderland (Convention 2017). I tend to be drawn to Asian dolls when the facial features are this well done. So far, I've only bought 4 dolls this year and three of them were guys. Much of what I saw during men's fashion month went way over the top. However, being the true blue fashionista I am, I try to understand everything. And I think my millennial dolls helped me to better visualize what really works.

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  4. Muszę przyznać, że moda męska nigdy nie była mi zbyt bliska. Owszem, lubię, kiedy mężczyzna jest ładnie i schludnie ubrany, nawet lubię w niektórych przypadkach ekstrawagancję :)))
    Moda na miejskie ulice różni się nieco od mody na pokazach. Cieszę się, że zajęłaś się też tą stroną modowego "szaleństwa" :-)
    Twoje ubrania są zawsze ciekawe, świetnie uszyte i masz wspaniałe pomysły!
    Pozdrawiam Cię bardzo serdecznie :-)

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    1. Olla wrote:
      I must admit that men's fashion has never been too close to me. Yes, I like it when a man is nicely and neatly dressed, I even like extravagance in some cases :)))
      The fashion for urban streets is slightly different from the fashion at the shows. I am glad that you also took this part of the fashion "madness" :-)
      Your clothes are always interesting, well sewn and you have great ideas!
      I greet you very warmly :-)

      Hi Olla and thank you for your kind words. When I began this blog it was never with the idea of doing menswear. In fact, I wasn't even collecting male dolls. But there is so much going on in men's fashions and not all of them involve those difficult to make tailored suits. So I gave in and began including them. I don't always understand the new trends, but I am happy I have well dressed male dolls to compliment my girls. Big hugs.

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  5. Well, I think I'm old fashioned too. ;)
    What I like most is biker outfit and the whole Velvet Touch. But most of all I like your versions of the clothes. They much better. ;)

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    1. Kameila, if you only knew..... There were shows where the designer put the guy's shorts over his trousers! Put too many bright colors in the same garment. Put skirts and dresses on guys!!! I used to tell my students, "Guys don't wear junk." But nowadays, designers seem to think otherwise. I will admit, however...I love a guy in a velvet suit. At the end of the day, I did what I do for the girls on the red carpet...try to capture the essence and make it make sense to me!!!

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  6. Nice one. I love my IT boys, and enjoy seeing them here, the evolution of the suit is always interesting, and love your choice of suits. I enjoy making all kinds of suits, but they are a lot of work in the tailoring and fitting. Thanks for the many inspirations!

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    1. Thank you Julie. This year I've been getting more IT guys into my collection and they need clothes. I developed a really good jacket pattern for them. And yes, making suits really slows things down. The choice of fabric is also crucial. A cotton velveteen would have been easier to handle--especially around the edges. But I had a difficult time finding this so I used a stretch velvet instead. Easier to fit but very hard to finish! In any case, there is so much casual fashion for guys these days, and many designers seem to be using fabric ordinarily destined to female fashion. I don't want to go that far, but it makes it easier to replicate what I see in the marketplace for my IT guys.

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    2. Yes, cotton velveteen is a bit easier, bit it is also quite bulky for 1/6 scale. Silk velvet is better, but pretty much has to be sewn by hand it's so slippery. I do often use what you would call female fabric, because it's fine and gives a better fit. I also use recycled fabric from, say, women's business skirts in polyester blend I buy from opp shops. I would not touch stretch velvet because I've seen dye transfer to the plastic from that stuff. I also use silk for the lining, it behaves better than synthetic linings.

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  7. Something for men... Mmmmmmm... I like it! ^_^

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    1. Thank you Aya. Happy to know you enjoyed this post!!!

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  8. As a male doll collector I really love male fashion. Personaly I preger grunge/rock style, but waching high fashion outfits is interesting too. It's a fun to see how high fashion designers are inspired by casual day wear from streets. Varvatos's velvet jackets paired with sweatshirts and scarfs are my favourite, they remind me of 90's british style, not to mention of glam rock. Really like your versions of those clothes!

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    1. Thank you Jewel. Nice to see people are collecting guy dolls. Over the past 20 years (when "casual Fridays" debuted), there has been a shift away from suits and ties and more towards urban wear and casualwear. This actually encouraged me to attempt clothes for the guy dolls. As things have evolved--sometimes way over the top-- I find it necessary to make it all make sense to me. Hence...I take a look and figure out what I can do so that I can accept the designer's original concept. Making menswear is a real challenge. But over the years, I think I'm getting better.

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  9. Of course Moschino's biker outfit is the best! Love this style, looks metal, grunge, rock, hippie - everything alternative!

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    1. I wanted to do the biker outfit but realized I'd need lots more time as well as zippers. At some point that jacket will happen!!!

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  10. Your guys look awesome April! I love all the outfits you made. That velvet suit is so handsome. I love the cape as well, I hope we'll see some on the streets when it gets colder!

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    1. Thank you M&F. The three new guys forced me to do a menswear piece. And though my Ken dolls are cute in designer clothes, the FR Hommes dolls with their chiseled bodies really show off the clothes much like their female counterparts. I love the look of velvet on a man, so I'm thrilled about that trend. I also love to see a man dressed elegantly so that's on my wishlist as to what we might see on the street or at least on the red carpet!

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  11. Awesome post! I was wondering how you made the LV logo on those shirts? Thanks. :)

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    1. Hi there. My printer is out of wack so I had to carefully draw the LV logo onto the sweater by hand. Otherwise, I would have used the transfer paper to print out and iron-on.

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    2. You did a great job! I would have never known! :)

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  12. OMG! Your Givenchy, Saab and Murad recreations are stunning.....more beautiful than the originals, I think!

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