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THIS MONTH:
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Shopping on Rodeo Drive
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The commercial center of the masculine apparel industry might be Milan, but it is Paris that gives men's fashion its creative jolt. And if you had to shake down the names on the official list showing here, three lightening rods attract the most wattage - Hedi Slimane for Dior Homme, Jean Paul Gaultier and Helmut Lang.
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Dior Homme has captured its share of Hollywood's leading men, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt among them, as well as a constellation of rock stars - David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and Justin Timberlake - even Elton John dresses his boyfriend in Dior, while collecting jewelry for himself. The youthful look of Hedi Slimane's designs, full of sharp lines and razor-clean tailoring, have sent Dior's sales floating energetically higher, even while other labels are stuck in the gloomy quagmire brought on by a stagnant world economy.
In the face of pressure to enlarge his cut to accommodate the unbridled obesity that seems to encircle the globe, Hedi has done no such thing. Karl Lagerfeld lost one third of his body weight just to get into Dior suits, and is not likely to take them off anytime soon. The world's most polished couturier also requires his male assistants at Chanel - like his models - to either fit in, or get out. Weightlessness is never far from Karl's mind. At his most recent show for Lagerfeld Gallery, he put girls in T-shirts plastered with the slogan "4 Slim People".
It would also appear, despite claims to the contrary, that body physique is an obsession with most men - especially those who shave off pounds in a fury when placing a Yahoo personal ad, whether that be "man seeks man", or "man seeks woman".
Jean Paul Gaultier is a name synonymous with gender bending, and in fact, the exposition "Men in Skirts", recently opened at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, documents his first androgynous men's collections from the mid-1980s.
When you get through the kilt-like creations, the flowing mink stoles, the dresses sprinkled in polka-dots, and the layers of silk teddies, you normally find highly creative juice at the heart of it all. To quote Shirley MacLaine in the 1990 film Postcards from the Edge, "queens just love me."
Coming full circle now, into a lighter and more elegant understanding of men's attire, Gaultier's most recent collections have been increasingly refined. The first major designer to release a men's cosmetic line, he has seen his vision translate into soaring sales. Sephora, for one, can not keep the line of powder, crème, lipstick, neutral nail polish and eyeliner stocked in its Paris stores. Metrosexuals beware!
Helmut Lang remains something of an enigma. This past season in Paris, he staged his women's Ready-to-Wear show outside of town, far from press central, and thus insured even less coverage than normal. Since he barred the NY Times from his show, and even the International Herald Tribune did not show up, one wonder's whether he really wanted publicity.
It might have been just as well. Helmut Lang's real passion seems to be menswear, and wrapping women in metal, and puncturing holes in their dresses and blouses does not work as well as it does with the boys. It lacks, shall we say, a note of feminine warmth and grace.
But what was lacking for women, translates into a thunderbolt for men. From deconstructed trousers, "marcels " (aka in American slang as "wife beaters") ripped with irregular circles, to vests linked with crushed aluminum, he continues to blast menswear into the space-age realm.
Austrian-born Lang is very much an ingenious designer, though he has never lived up to his full commercial potential. Lacking Hedi Slimane's rock stars, or Gaultier's gay following, exactly which market he is aiming at remains anybody's guess.
With the coming of a new season, and an encouraging world economy dawning on the horizon, Paris will doubtless be the place to watch this January. Designers, big and small, known or not, will send their collections out onto a fickle and haute tension catwalk, one that strikes like lightening on men's fashion.
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