NY Fashion Week - picks so far

My picks so far from New York fashion week: Band of Outsiders for dudes in fur (hot!); and Alexander Wang for making me consider actually auctioning off my own organs to buy the collection.

Band of Outsiders Boys

Alexander Wang Womenswear

Katie Eary Spring Summer 2011

British boys do it best?? In January I blogged wanting a candy coloured Jil Sander boy all of my own. Now I'm torn. This is hot: Katie Eary Spring Summer 2011. 1 part Cool Britannia and 1 part fashion boy leopard trousers. Innit. 

Oh My MUGLER

It's not often that a menswear show causes such a great buzz in the fashion world. But then again, Nicola Formichetti does not do things by halves. He certainly lived up to his reputation with his first show as creative director for Mugler, which kicked started Men's Fashion Week in Paris. Formichetti, who is still best known as Lady Gaga's stylist, has set up to prove that he is so much more than that; and that he deserved his British Fashion Award (the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator) back in December. Undoubtedly, what we have here is fashion marmite in the extreme (with a very strong after-taste)!  Formichetti himself described the collection as wearable. Well, maybe if you're Bryan Boy or Jake from the Scissor Sisters.

Mugler, Autumn/Winter 2011

Mugler, Autumn/Winter 2011

Mugler, Autumn/Winter 2011

Mugler, Autumn/Winter 2011

Mugler, Autumn/Winter 2011

Boyssss!!!! It's hip to be square (at Prada)

Men's Fashion Week, AW 11. While Prada's show was all about boxy shoulders and 70s silhouettes, one could not fail to notice this: the male models on the runway all sporting proper little pudding bowl haircuts!! Aww....they look so damn cute! Ooooh yes, boys - it's gonna be hip to be square!!

Playing it up backstage:

From Another Galaxy

Sky captains from the world of tomorrow, take note. For Christopher Kane's Spring Summer '11 Menswear collection, his inspiration came from images of the cosmos, which he transposed onto his menswear collection of luxe-casual t's, hoodies and jackets.

This is the return of the Space Cowboy.

Top It Off

'Known by the sobriquet of the Artful Dodger.'

The top hat has made a return to men's fashion, and this is being in part attributed to the immense popularity of Downton Abbey.  I love a man in a good hat, and I am also enjoying this current vogue for proper English Edwardian dandies. Men and boys: channel your inner Artful Dodger (that lovable rogue!) and cut a dapper dash as you go about town this winter.

Cane it like Chuck Bass in Paris

Recently I came across pictures on the internet of Ed Westwick filming the new season of Gossip Girl in Paris carrying what may or may not become the new 'manbag': the cane. I have of course realised that it may not be an accessory at all, more of a prop (as remember he went down in the series finale of Season 3 in that extremely fake shooting scene), but I like to think that Chuck is taking his modern day Beau Brummel look to the next level. A cane is the perfect accessory for Chuck's character as he is debonair, prone to evil and also sort of kinky. Personally, I am loving the cane: there is something intrinsically masculine and old-school about it. The trick for modern dandies is not looking too pretentious or like a school history teacher. I truly believe that the cane would in fact make the ideal accessory for the Dior Homme coat/capes so Chuck Bass, please take note because I am deeply upset by this black trousers/white shirt/waistcoat ensemble in the bottom picture. It looks like when Dan Humphrey had to be a 'cater waiter' at Eleanor Waldorf's Seder. Quelle horreur!

Could modern men cope with capes?

For the Dior Homme Spring Summer 2011 Menswear collection, there was a focus on coats that were cut away from the body to billow out behind the models as they walked like capes. Capes are of course set to be a 'may-jah' trend for Womenswear Autumn/Winter 2010. Personally I have long adored wearing them purely for the dramatic flourish they add to any outfit (and this is despite the fact that capes were the part of my boarding school uniform despised by almost all of the pupils). Indeed, looking at this collection, feminine critics may describe these robes in precisely this sort of romantic manner: dramatic; bold; aloof; broody. However most men I know tend to be wary of anything too experimental when it comes to fashion and I rather think they would still be more inclined to associate capes with comic books and superhero films rather than wearable fashion for the urban man about town.

Who knows though: coats shaped like capes (copes?), coming to a British high street near you next summer? I reckon it'll take a braver man than Superman himself to try out this particular trend.

Why should I be an usher....

.....I'm Chuck Bass (and I look ridiculously good in a suit).

When I was on my Gap Year, I spent 4 months working for Tiffany and Co and I developed a complete and utter (style) crush on one of the boys who I was working with who came to work one day wearing the most beautiful handmade bespoke pale grey suit. I think the image will be imprinted on my memory forever, such is the impact of a well-cut suit. Suits are undeniably the very essence of masculinity.

Although a suit would seem to be a fashion no-brainer, a man in a good suit is hard to find and for this I blame one thing: mass production. When you look back on the pre-industrial revolution history of suits, each was created made to measure, by a tailor who was highly skilled in the art of suit making (it is an art, as anyone who works on Savile Row will know). However this does not mean that for a man to wear a suit well that they have to employ such lengths (or expense).

Firstly, the cut is vital. Often I see men in suits that are too big at the shoulders and therefore the drape is completely wrong. Secondly, the material: if it is not shiny, then you are half way there (seriously, I've spotted a lot of men on my daily commute who look dangerously flammable). Finally, well placed accessories can make a vital difference. Personally I love the flair of a suit worn with a cravat, or a well placed hankerchief in the upper breast pocket, but I understand that not every man has got what might be regarded as dandy-ish inclinations. However simplicity and a good, pressed shirt and well-knotted tie will never fail.