Men in tights: genderless fashion rules the SA Menswear Week runway

14 February 2016 - 02:00 By Mary Corrigall

Categorising fashion as menswear or womenswear will soon be old hat if the new generation of South African designers have their way. Creativity and changes in society are shifting fashion formulas, writes commentator and curator Mary Corrigall Men used to draw the short straw (... with regards to fashion, that is). At local fashion weeks, menswear collections tended to be tagged on to the end of womenswear lines and often simply boasted watered-down style lines or detailing. No one seemed particularly bothered; fashion was viewed as a woman's preoccupation as men were seemingly less invested in their appearance.story_article_left1There have always been exceptions - such as Shaldon Kopman's Naked Ape label launched in 2005. Kopman's label was geared for men and the design told a South African story, reaching back to the mines and the dress code workers evolved. Ephymol and House of Olé could also be relied on to deliver slick collections. Shirts, ties and fitted jackets were rendered in different colour and print combinations each season. It wasn't that they lacked creativity as designers, but rather it was assumed that men didn't "do fashion".It was at SA Fashion Week in 2013 - when Roman Handt sent men down the runway in stockings - that the notion of borderless fashion finally seemed possible. Of course, men had worn stockings before - on theatrical stages. What was different about Handt's show was the fact that it didn't look feminine or evoke drag. As always, the collection was relatively macho, with characteristic embellished shoulder pieces and influences from hip-hop. Nevertheless, the black stockings made sense. They looked cool and seemed plausible; one of those out-of-the-box stylistic gestures to dress up a ramp collection. The men in the audience might not have rushed out to snap up a pair of stockings but Handt showcased something that had seemed unthinkable in South Africa: the lines between womenswear and menswear were not so hard and fast.This idea was also driven home by the off-the-shoulder asymmetrical tops in his edgy collection. It was something of a revelation; men had shoulders worth admiring as much as women had. Why had we overlooked their bodies for so long?full_story_image_vleft1Of course, this was all pre-Caitlyn Jenner - before discussions around gender had really entered mainstream Western popular culture. And in truth it wasn't that Jenner changed the world with her transformation, but it was a monumental moment as it signalled that your birth gender was not something you had to stick with. This logic suggested that the boundaries between genders had collapsed: if you could choose whether to be a man or woman you need not be stuck at polar opposites of the gender continuum. In this way, women could play with their masculine side and men could explore their femininity in ways that metrosexuality had proposed but never fully realised in the realm of South African design. The local fashion scene was unprepared for genderless clothing. Borderless fashion - fashion that isn't necessarily tailored for men or women, but both - offers more slippery definitions regarding gender binaries and may be a scary concept. But where better to announce or reflect this shift than in menswear and on a ramp where new identities are being tested?A new crop of designers that include Adriaan Kuiters + Jody Paulsen (AKJP), Jenevieve Lyons, Chu Suwannapha, Rich Mnisi and Kim Gush have been advancing clothing ranges at South African Menswear Week (SAMW) that are not distinctly masculine, but rather are androgynous designs that could be worn by women or men. It is probably not so much that SAMW, established by fashion photographer Simon Deiner and Ryan Beswick last year, became a platform for borderless fashion but that it influenced its evolution by giving a space, both real and ideological, for local designers to push the limits of menswear. Invigorating menswear design has involved more than simply coming up with new colour combinations but has helped reinvent how we view men and conceive of masculinity in relation to femininity.full_story_image_vright2The starting point for Lyons's 2016 winter collection may have been an albino man in a film but it was the underpinning questions about beauty that attracted her to the theme. Historically, challenging notions of beauty or even the desire to be considered beautiful have not been issues that men have been burdened with. The silhouettes, fabrics (brushed wool, velvet) and strong linear lines of her collection exuded a masculine feel. Lyons's collection pivoted on a travelling nomad: the idea of a being without a fixed home captured the sense of ambiguity that informed her design ethos."When I design for a figure it is a genderless figure. Avant-garde design comes from being genderless," says Lyons. The prints, textures and textiles of her collection were covered in freckles particular to albino skin and, as such, blurred the line between skin and garment. Showing skin is a feature of genderless fashion. As with Handt's seminal collection, revealing the male body in a manner conventionally associated with women has become a staple of this borderless fashion turn. Gush's 2016 winter collection at SAMW showed men in leather shorts and a cheeky onesie with a flap open at the back revealed the model's bare bottom.In a nutshell, Gush's collection translated '90s Goth clubwear for women into a men's collection. She too had her men in stockings, embellished with spikes; feminine garments with a hard masculine edge. This combination is a common strategy driving genderless fashion; identifying ways in which stereotypes can be fused into one seamless look for both genders.Lyons's inspiration for her collection could have been interpreted for women or men. She generally sells her collections to both sexes and has this in mind at the beginning of the design process. The World War 1 military-style influences that infuse the collection, communicated via heavy coats, khaki colours and vintage-looking accessories, summon the masculine stereotypes she believes will be attractive to women clients seeking out more androgynous or masculine lines. In this way borderless fashion doesn't necessarily entail feminising masculine lines and offers the kind of designs that would be attractive to women consumers too.full_story_image_vleft3When artist and designer Jody Paulsen joined AKJP in 2013, he was tasked with introducing a womenswear line that was print/surface-design driven, as his design partner Keith Henning wanted to capitalise on the interest women had shown in the label's menswear collections. He suggests that women consumers are more open to embracing masculine fashion than men might be about adopting more feminine looks. For this reason Paulsen maintains that while "we do style our shows in a borderless fashion way, we are very careful about how we merchandise each collection in-store. Most South African men buy menswear. They are not as comfortable with androgynous clothing. This market usually appeals to trendy fashionable boys who are approximately 10% of our clientele."The graphic-print-driven trend that defines AKJP's clothing seems to have smoothed the road to borderless fashion. Take Suwannapha's Chulaap label, which is defined less by it being clothing for men and more by the designer's idiosyncratic combinations of prints, which is appealing to men and women. Suwannapha sets out to create many basic pieces. "If you look beyond the prints, I create basic cardigans, basic pants. When you put them together they can be intense, but it is up to customers to play it one way or the other," he says. This sense of play that Suwannapha refers to underlies the borderless fashion movement; designers may have been liberated from the strictures of gender-centred design but ultimately the boundaries are being broken by consumers who are shopping in sections of stores that were previously off-limits.full_story_image_vright4In a piece for online shopping website Superbalist, writer Sandiso Ngubane shared that he had been browsing and shopping in womenswear sections of department stores for years because the clothing fitted his skinny frame better, was "less bland" than the offerings for men and was able to express himself "better through fashion when dressed in clothing intended for women". The story is paired with a shoot featuring Ngubane with two young men wearing clothing paired with (traditionally) women's accessories. The men don't look outrageous or appear to be flouting fashion rules. As Ngubane observes: "We certainly don't dress up flamboyantly to entertain others, and we most certainly don't dress up as women. We dress as ourselves."..

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