Is men’s fashion changing?

Timothée Chalamet has a sense of style and audacity. Each time he appears on a red carpet, he creates the event. He dares sequins, bare back, just like Harry Styles who wears flowery suits, boas around his neck and skirts and dresses. Are the codes of masculinity changing?

With us, animators Angelo Cadet, Jay Du Temple and Jean-Philippe Wauthier have distinguished themselves over the years with bold styles that go beyond the male norm. “Whatever the era, there have always been iconoclastic and different characters,” launches Thierry Tessier, French fashion historian. He cites the dandy as an example, who wanted to break worldly rules as early as 1800. 1825. It was a state of mind, an eccentric style and a desire to be unconventional,” he explains. “There have always been free electrons, and fortunately. When we see these two artists who wear outfits that are not logically of their genre, there is clearly the desire to break the codes, to be daring and creative, ”says the professor of fashion history.

Freedom of expression

“How to define masculinity? Femininity ? asks Alexis Walker, Associate Curator, Costume, Fashion and Textiles at the McCord Stewart Museum.

An opinion shared by host and director Angelo Cadet, who has long worn flamboyant outfits. “For a few years, I have seen that the younger generation is keen on fashion. It’s his way of expressing himself and asserting himself. There are no limits, and she doesn’t care about genres. »

He remembers that, when he was younger, he would rummage through his sisters’ wardrobes to take their blouses. “There were a lot of androgynous looks in the 1970s and 1980s, there was David Bowie, Prince, Boy George, the Duran Duran band. I put kohl on my eyes, I wore leopard shoes and clothes flyawaysit was a way of asserting myself in front of my Haitian community at the time, which was more traditional,” he explains.

“Today, there are no longer these borders, launches Angelo Cadet. The silhouettes have changed, we see it in the parades. Lots of clothes are unisex and there is color, whereas before just wearing pink was considered feminine or extravagant! »

Overcome sexual barriers

The French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier played a lot on the mixture of genres. In 1985 he presented And God created man, a unisex show with men’s skirts. “In menswear there has always been this tension between excess and restraint, as much as it can be very expressive and original, but also very restrictive,” admits Alexis Walker, who sees changes in the industry.

Thierry Tessier, who teaches in Paris, notes the desire among his students to overcome sexual barriers. “They’re wearing skirts, which I’ve never seen before. This generation, which has been locked up for almost two years with the pandemic, has a furious desire to express itself, to break the moralizing shackles, but at the same time, Paris is a very bourgeois and conservative city. I wonder if there will not be a societal conflict between the under 22s and the over 45s! said the teacher. Fashion should not be underestimated, as it affects all aspects of life. Fashion is sociology, culture, economics and philosophy. »

Alexis Walker believes that a new type of man is beginning to emerge and that Harry Styles represents this idea of ​​alternative masculinity. “Men’s fashion has long been represented mostly by bourgeois values. There was this idea of ​​power, self-control and sobriety in his bearing. But that’s changing, fortunately, ”she believes.