“E
at meat. Dress well.”
Says who? Says French Connection bluntly in their illiterately toned ‘French Connection for Man’ campaign. Not for men, for man. By using the singular noun incorrectly as opposed to the plural, it connotes that he under quotation is uneducated enough to use it in that tense. In this case, he under quotation is, supposedly, a caveman. This, united with the tamely, unkempt beard, scruffy, long, unevenly parted hair and rugged, thick eyebrows shows perhaps no other than a well dressed beggar. Dress him in a designer brand and suddenly the beard is back. Hair is chic. Cave is in. The power of fashion alone illustrated on a, once, blankchin-canvas.
Feminists constantly protest their outrage at society’s apparent discrimination an should be against women and women alone but brave.” would this not argue French Connection that in actual fact, a for Man fashion brand, (an industry predominately stereotyped as a female oriented industry) has just victimised the male species right down to a prehistoric homosapien level. Is there any lower form of intellectual insult? Ladies, is this sweet revenge or an act of protest for equal rights? A taste of our sickly, sexist medicine?
“M –
Yet maybe we are thinking ahead of ourselves and that really our monkeymen aren’t clever enough to string together a sentence let alone depict a fashion ad that point blank insults their intelligence. French Connection most likely thought of this, as this not only appeals to fashion forward men, but is targeting maybe those men who see shopping as an exhaustive chore and would jump at the chance of an experience in a store as simple and as dumbfounded as a day during the Stone Age. To be as well dressed as their male models, keep their messy facial hair and still be hot enough to feature on a designer photo-shoot with the ease of one shop, one collection and a few basic looks. Eat meat. Dress well. Simple. This would drown the whinge of the shopmoping male, leaving our, once exasperated, feminist women to browse in department-store peace.
Fashion is about trend. Who’s wearing what, who’s dressing in which way and how can those without, become those with and as fast as possible. The tabloids with daily articles change and birth trends faster than any other
industry and in doing so, the beard is back. Brad Pitt knows it, David Beckham knows it, Justin Bieber wishes he was old enough to know it. All that come with the beard are the ways of the beard. The style of the beard, its tastes and interests, its entire head to toe outfit all handcuff with the beard itself. Ricky Hall, model, one of many inspirational, bearded fashion icons in an interview with www.menstylefashion.com that every man’s key staple pieces a man should have in his wardrobe: “5 white tees that fit you perfectly, a good quality pair of brogues, a handmade suit, some fitted indigo denim jeans, some battered up Dr Martens, Brixton Beanie, Donkey jacket and some Adidas Sambas. You can’t go wrong with any of that racket” This man
undoubtedly would not have the fraction of fame he does if it weren’t for his bristly face, style and countless tattoos. Style advice from a beardless Ricky Hall would pose the same question, if no one were there to hear a tree fall in the forest, would it make a sound?
A tree that could fall in the forest and many a woman would come running to hear, Mr David Beckham himself - very recently seen to be wearing, and no doubt soon to be flooding stores, sleeve garters. A look he once debuted in 2008 that never gained much attention next to his short, bleached hair but yet now, with his short back and sides, groomed quiff, irresistible stubble and full sleeved tattoos, a look similar to that of Ricky Hall, he has gained major media interest. Fashion trends fall within lifestyle trends, those in trend physically will set trends fashionably.
“I
n an age of unlimited porn, 50 Shades of Grey, HBO’s Girls and social media over-sharing — so much of women’s sexuality is still such a secret.” – Time News Feed
But why is the male form of unhygienic, lazy facial hair something to praise? Why is it changing current on trend male fashion through lack of maintenance and ignorance towards the professional clean cut look, suddenly the effortless approach it takes to influence
‘There is no such thing as the ideal female body. Some of the famous nudes in art history were thought to be near-perfect configurations of the ideal female form’ times
others? Why do women go to great lengths to get noticed yet the simplest things men do get corporately celebrated, despite the lack of intentional movement? One Thousand Beards a book visiting the Cultural History of Facial Hair lists many a reason why a man would desire a beard, ‘I hate shaving’, ‘It’s natural/God given’, ‘It’s the only thing women can’t do’ – or is it?
Linda Sproul’s artistic performance between Victor/Victoria was acted in a transparent Man’s suit as was said to represent that sexuality is constructed on the surface of the body, in the interstices between skin and clothing. At every seam grew bodily hair – something pulling man and women together in a likeness – their body hair. But why now are there a million and one products and treatments available and encouraged for women to be bald between their legs and yet this market is non-existent for men? Veet, laser hair removal, Venus bikini shaver, the Brazilian, the Hollywood, the list goes on. Why do men have the freedom to grow hair every which way but loose, yet women are victimised and pressured if not hairless from the eyebrows down.
have definitely changed. No woman would ever see the size 14 unshaved women on an ad campaign or a sex scene in a movie. Fashion photographer, Petra Collins, even had her Instagram account deleted because of an image involving no genitalia, simply her wild lady garden poking out her knickers, yet art galleries once were filled with female lady gardens left, right and centre.
American Apparel caused recent uproar with their media scalded, distasteful t-shirt designed by Collins herself of a woman both menstruating and masturbating. A combination physically unusual, let alone for art upon a t-shirt. Apparel further poked the hornet’s nest with a window display of some very hairy models. ‘Why can we not see it in art if it is represented everywhere in advertising, pornography and the popular media?’ author Helen McDonald
argued, a thought Collins undoubtedly agrees with. It seems out-dated that French Connection can humour a Cave man’s literature and not a Cave woman’s body. It’s difficult to understand how there are so many unrealistically Photoshopped women with immaculately groomed pubic regions in so many ad campaigns, yet one company shows a real woman and most view it as disgusting.
A recent advert for Capriccio female grooming [see previous page] showed female fingers with nicely filed nails, a play on image for their availability of women’s lower region hair ‘cuts’. It connotes that a woman should take private grooming as serious and as regular as the hair on their heads.
The memorable and humorous scene in Sex and the City the movie, where Samantha comments on Miranda’s, as she calls it, ‘situation’ shows how Miranda takes the comment very sensitively reacting as though Samantha had suggested that because she forgot to wax, she let the sex go out of her marriage and deserved to be cheated on by her husband. For a woman to be able to make such a strong assumption about the breakdown of her marriage, even though it’s a fictional production, demonstrates the pressure on women to be well groomed in order for men to find them attractive. How the seriousness of a wild pubic region for women can lead to divorce and wild facial hair for a man makes him a fashion shepherd, quite literally, is astonishing the difference between grooming standards between men and women and their roles in society and the fashion world.
Men who can’t stand to be with women who, let’s not beat around the bush, are free within their regions, quite literally, shouldn’t call themselves men at all. ‘Man should be brave’ and fear not, of the bush.
Olivia Ames.