Each year’s New York or Paris Fashion Week showcases new and exciting designs for women’s clothing, but every man who walks down the catwalk seems to be outfitted in the same old suit.
This brings to light a lack of adventure and creativity in men’s fashion designs.
The most original-looking fashionistos of today’s culture are buying their clothes overpriced at Urban Outfitters or dirt cheap at Goodwill. Since the turn of the century, men have been salvaging previously original ideas from past decades, whereas women have just advanced in their fashion sense each year.
Casey Stannard, assistant professor in the department of textiles, apparel design and merchandising, said the specific dress codes that men and women are part of may exaplin this tendency.
For example, men are contained in a “restricted” dress code whereas womens’ dress code is “elaborated,” Stannard said.
Men’s clothing is restricted because there are fewer socially acceptable options in colors and patterns, she said. Women’s clothing is elaborated because it can not only use traditional female styles but also incorporate men’s styles.
“It would be strange in our society to see a man wearing an oversized tunic, yet women wear oversized T-shirts and men’s sweatpants,” Stannard said.
This brings up the idea that unisex clothing could be seen as one-sided.
While women are wearing more and more men’s styles today, the appeals of unisex clothing aren’t translating to the realm of men’s clothing. In this way, there is an advancement in women’s fashion where there isn’t in men’s.
If women can wear the exact styles that men are restricted in wearing, men should be free to wear women’s styles or items to advance their fashion repertoire.
Instead of being visceral, innovative ideas, most of the seemingly revolutionary trends in men’s fashion are just recycled ideas with a small twist or accent.
Stannard said this is also a strictly U.S. fashion issue because many countries across the globe have embraced more feminine styles.
European men’s fashion highly exemplifies the use of more feminine styles such as brighter, elaborate pattern schemes, much tighter swimwear and an excessive use of scarves in many outfits.
Though men are more restricted in their fashion choices now, in the past this was not always the case, Stannard said.
“Historically men were the peacocks,” Stannard said. “Nowadays there is a rigid view of masculine dress.”
One could argue, in fact, that women have been adopting men’s fashion trends for centuries.
For instance, the high heel was originally a male accessory. King Louis XIV of France wore heels to advance his small physical stature, and heels in general were only worn by the upper class of his court.
Eventually women started wearing the shoe and have been wearing them ever since.
However, this fashion phenomenon is generally obsolete in men’s fashion, restricting another outlet for men styling their outfits.
While men can attempt to combat such restraint through experimenting in their clothing, there isn’t much they can do when they can only buy a specific selection of styles.
Designers need to take more risks in their ideas, and, at the very least, present men with the option to try new things with their clothing. Otherwise, men are going to be left in a boring past while women advance into the fashion future.
Additionally, if designers can evolve in their styling of men’s fashion, male consumers should be willing to take the same risks the designers are taking. Men should strip their insecurity and develop to become more unpredictable in their fashion choices.
Michael Tarver is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Houma, Louisiana. You can reach him @michael_T16.