Menswear & Article below.
Lean Vs. Mean Article
As teen boys with bony chests sashay their way in, our boys next door are thinning out. Sculpted models have manufactured a fashion epidemic, taking the covers by storm. They tell us what’s hot and what’s not. This season thin boys are in and high body mass males are out. As the skinny jeans get tighter; so does the media’s view on the size of men’s waists. There is a universal divide within menswear that sets the boys aside from the men. Over on the boy’s side it’s tall and thin, strutting the catwalk modelling the latest svelte legs. And on the men’s side we have the large heavy weights, flexing on the perfume ads promoting the new protein craze ‘bulking’. But what are we demanding from our men? Do we want fit or thin?
The fashion world may be undergoing serious cuts, yet the continuous stream of male perfume advertisement featuring males such as Gaspard Ulliel – face of Chanel’s fragrance – a bulk of muscle and complete matching six pack, leaves the advert campaigns unreachable by the bony runway models. It’s a battle of two major worlds, sending mixed messages to naive teens.
Cue the eating disorders. Yet this time from the male side of the catwalk. We’re warmly welcoming the Manorexia epidemic and slowly waving goodbye to the days when David Gandy used to shroud every male magazine. The Manorexia plague has been bubbling under the skin of casting directors all around the world. It was not until Dior and YSL braved the bone and showcased undernourished adolescence’s,that the menswear industry exploited a new revolution.
This revolution was sparked by Dior designer, Hedi Slimane. Slimane’s innovation changed the face of the male suit, transforming the boxy suit ensemble into a slim and sculpted contemporary tailoring and the media ate it up. His original designs target to the slim side of male genetics, yet impacted the menswear hemisphere radically. Slimane began to file out hundreds of storkish models wearing sleek suits and heads turned. This modern style made opposing fashion houses look dated, as their suits looked broad and unflattering on their male mannequins. Designers such as Dolce & Gabbana, took the downsize and ran with it, reducing their proportions and demanding, “Skinny, skinny, skinny” according to Dave Fothergill – Director of Red Model Management. Models were recruited to ‘6 feet tall and a 32 inch waist’. This is leaving muscular men in a corner at castings, unable to squeeze their gym worked thighs into the ‘skinny fit’. A new body shape has taken over.
The domination of the fresh contoured man within luxury brands has worryingly launched into the high street stores, a pandemic that’s already polluting statistics, as the number of male anorexic suffers has shot up. “The eye has changed,” Mr. Bartlett – American designer for Claiborne – said, “Clothes are tighter and tighter. Guys are younger and younger. Everyone is just influenced by what Europe shows.” And it is true. Idealised images are poisoning more countries than just the majoring fashion capitals. As one in five eating disorders suffers are male. It shows the Westernized world glamorises slender body shapes and when plastered over billboards and big screens, it is highly toxic to influential minds.
This dramatically highlights that there is a flaw within our society triggering the increase of Manorexia, by the visual communication that’s distorted the images consequently misleading our men. However, is this merely a correlation to the ever narrowing clothing campaigns? Anorexia appears and begins varied among individuals, within girls it occurs around the ages of 10 to 14, where as boys it starts older, around the ages of 12 to 16. Hormonal changes, stress, low self-esteem and anxiety occur naturally in puberty and can trigger an obsession to lose weight. Add to this the pressures of school from peers, teachers, parents and the media all leading to the condition developing.
The cause of anorexia is still unknown despite vast amounts of research. It is suggested by doctors and health professionals that the condition is prompted from a combined environmental, social and biological factors that individuals are stifled by and influenced every hour of the day be that a school/work, online or at home. Despite anorexia having several triggers, it is hard to overlook the dark cloud of publications as UK’s creative industry is worth around £71.4 billion a year to our economy. Men’s magazines are ever increasing, as Men’s Health recorded an increase of 2.1% and sold around 250,247 copies each month. Men are just as much submersed in the industry as woman, thus ever conscious about what they look like and their body image, causing them to look towards the bright lights; choosing role models that are splashed over the covers.
In recent years magazines have elevated expectations of how our men should look. It is not surprising that men are feeling confused. As a society we are pulling them in to a difficult dichotomy. It is a battle of two halves. Over in the model and fashion realm “Designers like the skinny guy,” said – Mr.Svetlichnyy a Russian model – “It looks good in the clothes and that’s the main thing. That’s just the way it is now.” Yet in muscularity a study conducted with over a 141 college woman ages around 20 were shown 6 computer generated images of men; slender, typical, chubby, toned, built and brawny. When the woman rated the men out of sexual desirability it is no surprise – considering we’ve been nurtured to allure tone – the built guys came out on top. So why are the thinner models stampeding the runway?
Even though the healthier alternative is achieving a six pack and biceps ‘to die for’ there is still a significant number of men that are conscious about their bodies. Though, at the start of the new slimmer epidemic our thoughts and opinions on toned men could be fading quickly now the new thinner models are out in force stamping down on the bulk and promoting narrowing hips, waist and chest. But how thin will the media really go? Or will it be a fight of two halves? As the fashion models reduce will the gym crazies increase in a fight for aspiring male?
Whatever way the public sway, there is an ongoing disfigurement between evolving thin and muscular men. All wanting to achieve their ultimate image of what perfection is. Yet whoever the media choose as the winner – fat vs. thin – this will still have resounding affects onto our men within society, encouraging them to discipline their bodies to an unrealistic silhouette. For the meantime we challenge a fashion house to break the mould from impractical measurements into menswear that flatters all shapes.
Posted by eloisehall on 2015-02-05 22:38:40
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