Honestly, I think fashion is pretty much the most subjective thing in the world, so I believe what I think is fashionable is just irrelevant... So instead, I just googled "Men's Fashion" and browsed around the Internet. Apparently one of the trends in Spring 2009 has been "Eastern Promises," a phrase that Armani has picked up.
For one thing, this is the sort of "hardcore" fashion that is firmly rooted in the most elite of fashion spheres, so I believe it has minimal effect on us bottomscrubbers (or am I completely wrong?). But I have mixed feelings about this "Eastern Promises" business becoming popular in the fashion world. For one thing, it may bring up and/or amplify issues of exotification, particularly of Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern peoples. On the other hand, the same exotification could be interpreted as diversification. Perhaps what's most problematic is that Armani certainly cannot call himself Asian, thereby dangerously teetering over the line of fetishization by emulating Asian fashions into his own work. Or maybe I'm reading too much into this? Either way, the point is that I believe the line is culturally fashionable; whether it is culturally correct is another question.
Source: http://men.style.com/fashion/top_ten
2 comments:
What I find most alarming about trends in mens fashion is the loss of masculinity. Most of the trends on that page were most dreadful examples of androgyny I've ever seen. "Men are the new women", seriously?
The Japanese have good fetish with androgynous men. There's an entire market there of girls and women just clamoring for their girly, bishounen men. Honestly, with all of that in anime, manga, and video games, I've seen enough androgynous men for a lifetime. Haha.
Post a Comment