HAUTE HOMME
sticking the words ‘haute couture’ on her shop front, this no doubt comes as devastating news. But it is, alas, French law since 1945 – so there. It’s how we distinguish the cavas from the champagnes, you might say. And yet the question remains: would a sparkling wine by any other name not taste as sweet? Pose it in a womenswear forum and you’ll get laughed at if not lynched, but when it comes to menswear it’s not a silly question at all. Menswear is a sector of fashion within which the concept of haute couture doesn’t even have a name – and yet that shouldn’t necessarily be tantamount to its inexistence. While men’s haute couture – in the historic, legal-eagle French meaning of the term – never was, the male sex had the patent on couture-y costumes centuries before the oil wives of Texas crashed the party. Before anything bordering on fine clothes-making for men was shoved under the manly carpet of mainstream masculinity and stamped with words like ‘sartorial’, ‘tailoring’ and ‘bespoke’, the best-dressed gentlemen of the world employed costumiers who clad them in attire intricate enough to put Bob Mackie to shame. It certainly outshone the women in the room. These peacock roles of the genders weren’t reversed until the nineteenth century, high on post-French
Revolution testosterone, introduced its conformist ideals of masculinity and reduced the flamboyant menswear wardrobe to a jolly choice between suits and workwear. The only surviving artefact from the days of glory of men’s couture is (grand) uniform. And while few civilians run around in abundantly adorned tunics on a daily basis – goths and emos excluded – today’s most noteworthy menswear is often of a uniform nature, simply for the fact that it is tailoring but far beyond, and because it invites a large degree of transformation. The concept of that which is uniform allows a menswear designer to explore a single idea over an entire collection, and delve into details the way a couturier would. Take for instance the aforementioned Valentino collection’s variation on almost utilitarian sportswear jackets, each drenched in different detailing. Here, volumes (midcentury cocoon silhouette) and fabrics were tweaked but the bigger picture was unmistakably uniform: a lavish study in pretty much just one thing. It’s an idea last visited during the inauguration of Dior Homme, with Hedi Slimane at the reins first using the concept of uniform (along with stagewear) to explore a notion of pure luxury in the 2000s, coupled with a mindblowing eye for detail. So electrifying was
Slimane’s revolution – even hiding clear sequins in trouser pleats – that, when it was over, menswear seemed to embark on a bad break-up of epically dull proportions, of which recession added to. In 1947 when Christian Dior debuted his womenswear ‘New Look’, war and financial drought had ravaged the minds of the world. The Frenchman’s proposal – with its shockingly prolific use of fabric, 20 yards of it in some garments – got society talking, especially during a time of restriction. Obviously we haven’t just come out of a World War, but there’s a nod to history repeating during our dour financial and political climate. It was this silhouette that Raf Simons referenced in his first haute couture show for the house in June, the spirit of glamourafter-grief also echoed in the couture-leanings of menswear collections such as Valentino and Simons’ own. Ever since menswear became popularly acknowledged as an equally important part of the fashion circus, men’s desire for individuality and exclusivity in what we wear has increased with lightning speed. And while the idea of introducing haute couture for men – assuming it would follow the traditional rules of the trade where a piece can only ever be sold to one customer and never be made again – isn’t likely to materialise in the immediate future, the waves of haute couture currently washing over the menswear platform are inevitably changing the perception and possibilities of exclusivity when it comes to what men throw on their backs. If a Savile Row suit sets you back a few thousand
pounds, imagine what an AW12 embroidered Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture men’s cape with goat’s hair goes for? In a new era of menswear, it could be the price of ultimate individuality. But rather than flashiness, these kinds of garments signify a new approach to fashion on the part of the male consumer. When men’s fashion stopped playing second fiddle to its female counterpart and the high street opened its devouring eyes to the menswear knockoff bonanza, men were suddenly presented with an entirely new way of consuming fashion. The (at the time) relatively small number of initiated men’s high-fashion followers suddenly had to share the biannual cycle of trends and shifting wardrobes with the mainstream masses, who fed a new machine of throwaway, fast fashion pour homme. True to the high street’s omnivorous quantity-over-quality philosophy, today’s menswear market is defined by the very opposite of the individuality which is supposed to be the religion of our time. Haute couture may represent a dream of luxury and beauty, but menswear’s embracing of it has more substance to it than plain unapologetic materialism. It’s a quest for individuality and for what we wear to have a certain sense of soul, which – as an added bonus – can’t ever be copied by the high street.