Fashion Blog

PARIS, Jun 29, 2008 / FW/ — Has the new men’s silhouette that we have been waiting for arrived but we were too busy to notice it? As fashion followers, are we so entrenched in the forest that we have stopped seeing the trees? Did Raf Simons, John Galliano and Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy just give us what would be the ‘new look’ for men in the next decade?

Raf Simons

Known for his sharp tailoring from the beginning of his career, Raf Simons literally deconstructed and reconstructed the tuxedo. Slicing away the sleeves and the collar; in fact anything he could think of, the Belgian designer then morphed it into a pair of shorts, a sleeveless tunic and sleeveless / collarless long jacket in degradé black to white.

The look is stark and streamlined, that bordered on futuristic; yet it is something wearable and quite frankly, something that even the mainstream male fashion aficionados would find more than just interesting.

Because although the look is masculine, Raf Simons added embroidery which surprisingly was very manly! Though embroidery had always been associated with the delicateness of womenswear, especially in haute couture, Raf Simons reworked this element by densely packing them, thus creating this ‘tough exterior’ hence ‘manly.’

Raf Simons

John Galliano

Givenchy

John Galliano

A John Galliano show is always a fashion event, with the British designer’s famous penchant for a treasure hunt. As fashion observers, we have to find the ‘treasure’ in several layers of clothing and accessories worn by one model.

But, this is the 21st century, the digital age, with both the current and upcoming market well versed with video games that usually feature several races all at one time wearing different costumes, and sometimes even speaking the same language that part of the game is being able to learn another language.

So perhaps, John Galliano has always been the standard bearer of the new generation; his colorful creations seen on the runway has been the inspiration for video game creators costume designers.

The ‘stuffy set’ might find John Galliano outrageous, but the youthful generation who actually spend thousands of dollars to create their ‘costume’ for cosplay (short of costume play wherein real people attends conventions wearing costumes from role-playing-games) has a friend with John Galliano. But since they actually live in different universes, they have not found each other yet.

Givenchy

For Riccardo Tisci’s ‘debut’ menswear collection for Givenchy, the Italian designer went back to his eponymous label famous for Gothicism to create an austere, even severe collection that although very intellectually engaging might have lost both markets that it is catering to.

If Tisci was thinking of the traditional Givenchy clientele, this collection might be too fashion forward to them. Yet, if he was thinking of the hip Goth kids, then these cult followers would find the collection ‘too corporate’ looking.

But, everything is not lost. The Riccardo Tisci we all love has surfaced and somehow, we know that he has great things in store for us in the future.