Friday, April 16, 2010

Look of the Moment: Bloody Mess



Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano and DSquared Fall 2010

It's funny how designers interpret the meaning of "tough" in the runway. Women's Fall 2009 collection was full of it with the undying football shoulders, crazy makeup, and high-flying shoes. It's not the conventional image for tough, but when women deal with things that alter their body, it's really tough (ask anyone who walked in 10-inch Nina Ricci platforms!).

So what's the male version of it? I'm happy to say that the imagination shouldn't go that far. Lo,
DSquared, John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier gave us the quintessential tough man. The working man. The bloody man. The beat up man. The raw, the primeval, and the dirty.

Perhaps there's a tired feeling to the prototypical man as the "successful" man--the man who bestows the clean suit. But behind closed doors he deals with dirty business; he cheats poverty with, well, more cheating; and he escapes it all with the slightest of wounds.

After what happened to Wall Street,
Galleon Group and Bernie Madoff, designers must be utterly sick of all that. They want a clean slate. They want a man with virtue and strength. A man that handles things with his own two hands. He may be bloody beat up from that, but he's honest about it.

5 comments:

C A said...

Nico, the last fashion week was in Lisbon 4 weeks ago, the next one I am attending is in Poland.

Christina Caradona said...

these are such cool pictures.
well the game was just super complicated you know! a lot of reading to do. I think it was called FolkLore? I forget haha

ChinkyGirLMeL said...

I think of the three, I'm liking the last guy's outfit. The second guy scares me. hehehe

Manju said...

lollll looking beaten up is in now? haha

i think i'll watch the UB series, maybe in june after exams then

Nico said...

i agree, the third one really is the most feasible look. i like gaultier's approach too. but all leather for winter is a stretch.