[A]s the Spring ’14 menswear shows kicked off in London, one trend sounded with all the subtlety of an air horn: androgyny is the new black.The most forceful expression of this theme came from up-and-coming brand JW Anderson. The five-year-old label comprises collections for men and women, and designer Jonathan Anderson likes to overlap the look of the two. Last season, for instance, Anderson showed pairs of ruffled shorts for men much like the ones in his Spring ’13 womenswear collection. And this time, Anderson’s dominant silhouette was a lean tunic paired with fluid, elongated trousers, another shape he’d begun to articulate in his previous womenswear show. But the look that got eyebrows arching and tongues wagging was Anderson’s male halter top: backless, semi-sheer and floral patterned, the look was unavoidably effeminate.Other designers presented items such as “pale pink organza board shorts,” “a fitted suit of white lace,” and “lace-frilled running shorts.”
What do the dress-up games of the useless fashion industry have to do with regular guys who would almost rather vote for a Democrat than be caught dead in their absurd contrivances? If you are as patient as the incrementalist social engineers who occupy all the strategic hills in Western culture, you will find out — when this nauseating crap trickles down to the local department store.
[Menswear designer] Charlie Casely-Hayford agrees that, in time, his customer will fully come round. “We want to challenge our customer, but we don’t want to freak him out,” he says. “So every season, I’m asking myself – can we do a skirt? Will he understand? We’re almost there,” he adds. “But, you know, not quite yet.”As with all things liberal, the heat is turned up slowly, so that the frog doesn’t jump out of the pot.
Before long the frog will be floating belly up in boiling water, and we will find ourselves completely surrounded by a culture that turns our stomachs.
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