The new concept of male beauty
as men's fashion week approaches, we think over the value of masculinity nowadays
Fashion
June 11th, 2015
June 11th, 2015
Times change. Fashion changes, people change, the way we perceive ourselves and through which we define what is good looking and what is not changes.
The main means that establish the evolution of the aesthetic standards are with no shadow of a doubt the fashion runways, orchestrated by the strategies of the fashion brands behind them.
The gradual transformation of beauty standards on the international runways it’s under everyone’s eyes: just think about the shapes of the top models of the 90s and you’ll realized something has changed, for real. On a general level we observed an explicit inclination towards a kind of thinness with no accentuated curves. The real revolution of the latest seasons is the passing of the concept of male and female itself, who therefore share the same physic features and the same style.
As the men’s fashion weeks of London, Milan, Paris and – news of the season – New York approach, we get ready to admire an overview of boys (mostly extremely young boys) who strongly challenge the idea of masculinity. They are often young people coming from the subcultures of the main European capitals: club kids, skater boys and music fans found by chance out of an indie rock concert. To be more practical, they are the favourites of avant-garde fashion designers like Raf Simons and JW Anderson, who with their extremely androgynous fashion contributed to spread and consolidate the phenomenon among the fashion insiders, and more.
A factor of influence is surely the – too recent – enhancement of the acceptation of homosexuality. It is not rare to bump into a couple of handsome boys holding hands queuing up at a casting, and it is not a taboo to express our sexual preferences anymore.
Of course there are still brands like Versace or Dolce&Gabbana who explicitly favour a more shown off kind of masculinity, but if even an historic house like Gucci brought on the runway male models wearing silk ribbons and lace shirts, we are really witnessing a, marvellously modern, aesthetic revolution.
