Dior Homme lore, the Met's forgotten menswear exhibit, another bleak Milan men's season?
Plus, my one-sided beef with Ferragamo and Jacquemus
Hello! A quick update before we dive in: Yes, I have been spared from the Saks Global layoffs that sadly impacted so many corporate employees last week. (This is good news for you because that means I can still run Mannish without charging a monthly fee.) Our editorial department at Neiman Marcus was restructured as a result, and my previous boss, beloved style fixture Bruce Pask, is being moved over to Roopal Patel’s team at Saks Global as Senior Director, Men’s Fashion (a return to his fashion office roots). My small team is now led by Karin Nelson, who most recently ran editorial at Bergdorf Goodman and whom some of you may remember from her W Magazine days. Anyway, thanks to those who checked in to make sure I was ok! I thought fashion media was rocky but, boy, retail sure is just as shaky. Still, I’m grateful for being gainfully employed in these bleak times and can’t wait to see how everything there unfolds.
And now… checking in on Dior Men (now Homme?)
No, I didn’t forget the mini history lesson I said I would provide re: Jonathan Anderson’s Dior connection. My first thought when the whole messy appointment was announced was how this whole thing is really a full circle moment for him. Hedi Slimane was something of an “idol” for Anderson in his college days. While Prada was perhaps his biggest influence after he pulled the plug on his acting era (he worked on Prada’s store visuals early on), it was Slimane’s Dior collections that fascinated him the most when he was a fashion student and a sales associate at a Dublin department store. “None of it ever sold. It was so skinny,” he once said. “[Dior] was all I ever wore because it was on the discount rack.” He’d wear the fringed looks from Dior Homme Fall/Winter 2002 to the Irish clubs and get a bunch of compliments. He has also said that Slimane’s slender male silhouette was his “favorite.”
And most recently, just a few months before the Dior announcement, he told Bella Freud: “When I was at university, I just thought Hedi Slimane was the most amazing thing. I remember taking a part time job at Selfridges and I was just completely obsessed by Dior Homme in that moment. Because it was such a movement in London, such a moment of music, fashion, subculture, and elegance.”
Indeed, what a thrill for Anderson that this is where he ended up (and yes, he’ll get women’s too later this year). Interestingly, the close-up photo of the blue striped piece of shirt fabric he posted to announce his appointment doesn’t exactly give off Hedi vibes, nor is he the least bit expected to reference that era, no matter how much it shaped his ideas about fashion and identity. In fact, the classic blue stripes give off more of a Dior Monsieur vibe—what Dior Homme was called before Slimane took over and changed the name—where the aesthetic was more traditional and conservative. You can still find that stuff on eBay and Grailed by the way.
Patrick Lavoix was Dior’s men’s designer before Slimane. “I was trying to echo a certain idea of sophistication,” Lavoix once said. “We were a very classical and traditional house. That was our clientele.” Before him, the designer was Dominique Morlotti, and Gérard Penneroux before that. Marc Bohan established Dior Monsieur in 1970. Will Anderson riff on some of those more “traditional” menswear codes with his signature brainy twist?
Anyway, if Dior’s brief statement on Anderson’s appointment is any indication, we could be back to calling it Dior Homme again after Kim Jones had it changed to Dior Men after he took over in 2018 (apparently to give the label a more “international feel.”) Little victories, as they say.
A Metropolitan Museum menswear flashback
Up until Superfine, the Met’s upcoming exhibit on the Black dandy, the Costume Institute hadn’t held a menswear-dedicated exhibition in over 20 years. It was 2003’s Bravehearts: Men in Skirts that gave guys the spotlight, though it was reserved for the fall exhibit rather than the buzzy spring one that’s tied to the Met Gala. (It was itself an expanded version of an exhibit of the same name shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum a year earlier.)
Naturally, Jean Paul Gaultier, who’s been showing skirts on men since the mid-’80s, was the main sponsor. “I'm not trying to put all men in skirts,” he explained. “I just want to give them the freedom to wear a skirt if they want to. Women fought for years to wear trousers.”
The exhibit rather iconically opened with an Old Testament quote from Deuteronomy 22.5: “A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.” There was the opening cocktail party (not the official Met Gala) where a couple of usual suspects like Miguel Adrover, Alan Cumming, Boy George, and Gaultier wore a version of a skirt or dress. Designers represented inside included Ozwald Boateng, Roberto Cavalli, Alexander McQueen, Walter van Beirendonck, and even Giorgio Armani. You have to figure Thom Browne would’ve been represented, too, if the exhibit took place a few years later (Browne didn’t show skirts on men until Fall 2007). The curator Andrew Bolton, who didn’t meet his future partner Browne until 2005, wore a skirt/pants hybrid for the exhibit’s opening. “I haven’t gotten a very well-toned calf so I wore it with trousers, but it was still liberating to wear it,” Bolton said. You can still buy the accompanying book on Amazon, where some disgruntled customers left reviews like “stupid” and “bizarre,” further serving the exhibit’s point.
At the time, Robin Givhan called men in skirts “the garment industry's last taboo, the point at which fashion becomes a joke.”
“With the addition of skirts, Gaultier believes, men can achieve a greater degree of visual complexity,” Givhan wrote. “Their fashion messages can be more nuanced, more thoughtful and more worldly. With the addition of skirts to a man's wardrobe, the battle for equality between the sexes will be advanced. Masculinity will be more broadly defined.”
Side note: There’s also a bunch of fabulous men’s skirts in Vivienne Westwood’s FW25 collection that just dropped, which Liam Hess so eloquently reviewed for Vogue.
Please not another bare-bones Milan Men’s season
The schedule for the Milan men’s shows hasn’t dropped yet, but a big name already announced it’s going co-ed during the women’s schedule. Fendi, which skipped Milan Men’s last season to do the co-ed thing for its 100th anniversary, is doing the same in September. As Fantastic Man’s Gert Jonkers reminded me in the last Mannish letter, Milan’s January edition was super light—basically just Prada, Zegna, and Armani as the anchors. (Oh, and Dolce too.)
Call me traditional but I MUCH prefer standalone men’s shows, and men’s fashion weeks in general. Whatever reason Fendi is doing co-ed again—the luxury slowdown impacting budgets, more anniversary-themed content, a new Fendi CEO who doesn’t start until after the men’s shows in July—I do hope they’ll go back to separate showcases next year. Silvia Venturini-Fendi, whose title is still Artistic Director of Accessories and Menswear Collections, should really be overseeing the whole thing permanently. (Her women’s designs typically got better reviews than what Jones used to show.) That would officially leave Louis Vuitton as the only LVMH brand with two separate artistic directors for men and women, should Dior give Jonathan Anderson the women’s reins this year like they’re expected to.
Zegna will also skip Milan because they’re doing a one-off Dubai show. Gucci hasn’t announced their Men’s SS26 plans yet, but if their history this year is any indication they’ll likely combine men’s and women’s again for Demna’s first showcase—which, apparently is rumored to NOT be a full-blown runway show? (Kering’s Francesca Bellettini only said Demna will reveal a “hint” of his vision in September.) JW Anderson, which has typically shown men’s in Milan, is another question mark. Well, at least Paul Smith will show in Milan this season—his first time!
Ferragamo and Jacquemus are stressing me out
Not to sound crass, but ever since I left media and New York City, my discretionary income has skyrocketed. It’s giving labels, honey. (Ok fine, sometimes my employee discount does help.) I’ve never known what it was like to text with Client Advisors at designer boutiques before. It feels…rich!
So when I was ready to drop some of my hard-earned Hollywood money (SATC joke) on two FULL PRICE SS25 runway looks that I’ve had bookmarked in my Vogue app since forever—Jacquemus Look 9 and Ferragamo Look 50—I was told the full looks were not available to order… *cue “Do you know who I am” Samantha Jones quote*
Now look, we all know oftentimes looks from the runway will not actually make it to production. But facing that reality first-hand as an enthused shopper ready to fork over thousands was not something I was prepared for.
In Ferragamo’s case, they had the exact black suit jacket and pants, but not the gorgeous matching scarf that trailed the model from the show. I would only buy the suit if it had that exact same scarf. As for Jacquemus, the only thing they produced from that look was the PANTS. A customer care specialist kindly informed me that the shirt, corset belt, and skinny belt were created exclusively for the show and will not be produced for sale. Luckily I ordered a similar belt from an Etsy seller in Romania. And then I bought a Jacquemus black shirt from last season on Vestiaire Collective. All this drama just so I can achieve the model’s snatched look. Maybe I’ll keep you posted on how the look turns out.
Bits & Bytes:
“I see a lot of men wearing our things in L.A. as well.” —Tory Burch on her new Rodeo Drive flagship and the brand’s cross-gender appeal with Angelenos. [WWD]
Congrats to Wayman + Micah on their Daily Front Row “Men’s Stylist of the Year” award. They deserve it for their with Colman Domingo alone, truly. (I also think Warren Alfie Baker should take the prize next year.) [Daily Front Row]
The men’s assortment in Dries van Noten’s first NYC store is located in the basement. [Vogue]
A menswear designer I’d never heard of until this latest Max Berlinger piece. [New York Times]
“I didn’t create the Samba, but I had a way of working with it that gave it a resonance.” —Grace Wales Bonner [Financial Times]
The men’s and women’s business is split evenly at Balenciaga. [WWD]
Obsessed with this throwback post from Libertine’s Johnson Hartig talking about how Karl Lagerfeld gifted him some of his first menswear designs for Chanel after he invited him and Thom Browne to Paris for their 2005 Haute Couture show. [Instagram]
I love what Kartik Research is doing with menswear and this concept of “Indian Future Vintage.” I can’t wait to visit their new store Lower East Side store. [GQ]
Gap x Doen pt. 2 will include menswear! [Fashionista]
LOL I LOVE Mannish!
I feel your pain re: not being able to order runway looks