After the Tommy Hilfiger show for spring ’97 last week, one retailer was overheard asking another: “Did you get that?”
“Sure,” the man replied. “Mohair sweaters at the beach.”
If Hilfiger’s lime mohair sweaters over swim trunks weren’t exactly the most enduring image to be gleaned from a week devoted to menswear presentations, the outfit does serve as an example of how theatrics have come to play a bigger role in menswear.
Men’s designers now resort to the same sort of exaggeration that women’s designers use. Why show slim shirts if you can make them skin tight? Why show sweaters that are merely lightweight when you can really grab people’s attention by making them see-though? Is color the message? Don’t show one or two hues when you can pair a rainbow-striped sweater with tie-dyed pants.
Keeping the audience of press, retailers and the occasional celebrity entertained is really the only way to explain Gene Meyer’s crushed velvet bathing suit combos in clingy spandex or the Mike Brady look of hip-hugging plaid pants, white belts and tight shirts that prevailed at Joop!. Or the obligatory cabana boy segment in every show that required the models to parade down the runway in tight shirts and tiny briefs. After all, how many two-button suits can the crowd absorb? Joseph Abboud took a different tack–he showed realistic outfits on mannequins but hired jazz artist Wynton Marsalis and his band to provide the entertainment.
The real message to be distilled from the spring shows won’t be much easier for the average Baby Boomer to swallow than lime mohair at the beach. It’s a season that glorifies the male body. The idealized Adonis body. Pumped-up pecs, bulging biceps and an upper body that forms a flawless inverted triangle. There are no lumps or bumps around the abs. No excess around the thighs. These bodies are poured into skinny, flat-front pants and clingy, short-sleeved shirts worn untucked. Or into slim sweaters with shallow V-necks that outline the pecs. Or into trim suits that have built-in stretch to allow ease of movement.
The overall look is lean and clean. The models have lost their scruffy goatees and scraggly hair in favor of clean-shaven faces and haircuts that require the use of a razor above the neck and ears. The drug-addict look is gone. These guys just walked in from a game of beach volleyball.
Designers want men to know that it’s OK to preen a little and to show off their bodies. “It’s definitely a sexier collection than we’ve done before,” said designer Gene Meyer.
The style icons of the season are about as boy-next-door as you can get. There’s the Wally Cleaver look, built around a zip-front windbreaker that hangs straight to the hips, a pressed shirt and flat-front pants. Or the Boy Scout look from Richard Edwards, with a khaki shirt and tie and knee-length shorts. The clean-cut military look turned up at designers such as Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and John Bartlett in short-sleeved shirts, often worn with ties, or sport jackets with buttoned cargo pockets.
Hilfiger evoked high-school gym teachers in tight polo shirts and pants with tab waists. Other designers took the Cuban shirts, pebbled knit shirts, tab-waist pants and straw hats off the backs of retirees in Florida and put them on fit young bodies. And then there’s the professional athlete, who wore sleek performance clothing covered in billboard-size logos from Polo, Hilfiger or Nautica.
Style influences from the ’60s and ’70s are still flourishing. Flat-front trousers are as skinny as you can make them–many are made of stretch fabrics for extra cling–and are often cropped at the ankles. Pleated pants still exist, but the pleats have been moved outward to create a flatter front. Coats end just above the knee and often look as if they were rescued from a thrift shop. Frock coats bring to mind Mick Jagger. Knits are everywhere, and the colors, patterns and Banlon textures could have been lifted from the closet of Greg and Bobby Brady.
In an era when one-third of U.S. companies allow casual dress on a full-time basis, designers are making a conscious effort to dress up sportswear and dress down suits. Short-sleeved shirts and even knit polo shirts were worn with ties. Suits were usually shown with shirts worn open at the collar or with a sweater. Leather slides, fisherman sandals or dime-store flip-flops were favored as footwear.
Suits, when they did turn up, were elegant and lean. Single-breasted styles held sway, but they might feature anywhere from one to four buttons. Armholes were raised and lapels slimmed to create a trim silhouette. Double vents, another throwback to earlier decades, also emerged as part of the new shape. Shiny fabrics such as sharkskin, silk doupioni and iridescent cotton added to the dressy look.
Color is creeping into menswear and was shown to its best advantage with suits. Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss paired dark suits with solid color shirts and matching solid ties in eye-catching colors. For spring, any man can improve his look by taking a cue from Lauren and updating his charcoal suit with a bright blue, coral or lavender spread-collar shirt and tie.
“I like the matching tie and shirt,” said Lauren, who wore a navy pinstriped suit with a lavender shirt and shiny lavender tie to his menswear presentation. “I think adding this color gives it youth, but also flair for the guy who says, `I want to look special.’ “
TRENDS
Ralph Lauren; Shirts and ties in matching solid colors.
Calvin Klein; Slim sharkskin suit.
Richard Edwards; Wally Cleaver-look windbreaker.
also…
Knee-length coats
Western-style shirts
Anything silver
Semi-sheer shirts
Suit coats with side vents
