THE JOURNAL
Dior runway, Paris, 18 January. Photograph by The New York Times/Redux/Eyevine
What does it mean to dress smartly in 2019? With streetwear spreading its printed-hoodie and ugly-sneaker contagion over the past few years, smarter clothes have fallen by the menswear wayside. At the men’s fashion shows in Paris earlier this month, however, tailoring staged a real comeback. Suiting tussled for attention with streetwear, resulting in the emergence of a new kind of tailoring. For the first time in a generation, the suit is shedding its boardroom image for something more versatile – and decidedly futuristic. No longer single-breasted or double-breasted, the look for next season is something in between: the one-and-a-half-breasted jacket.
This might be a mouthful, but it is also a real thing. A term that was coined a few years ago by Mr Brunello Cucinelli, it refers to a shallow-wrapped suit jacket that is, as you might gather, somewhere between single- and double-breasted. It has all the chest-enhancing properties of a double-breasted silhouette, but is streamlined, as opposed to stocky, and has gained momentum over the past few weeks, appearing across runways, and subsequently, red carpets.
From left: Dior runway Paris, 18 January. Ermenegildo Zegna runway, Milan, 11 January. Dunhill runway, Paris, 20 January. All photographs by IMAXTree
Mr Kim Jones, the menswear artistic director of Dior, is perhaps the most notable proponent of this push, and presented a collection which incorporated the shallow-wrap jacket style in futuristic fashion, as besuited models came down the runway on a conveyor belt, production line-style. Rooted in traditional masculine tailoring norms (strong shoulders and power-peak lapels), jackets were adorned with sashes that were wrapped around the body like cummerbunds and draped over the shoulder in a way that is more often seen in women’s haute couture rather than menswear. Over at Givenchy, Ms Clare Waight Keller presented a collection of tailored eveningwear she called “perverse posh”. Sharp, expensive-looking suits belted at the waist were followed by uber-casual hoodies, and baggy Japanese-style trousers were mixed with 1970s tailoring references. Today’s man is expected to straddle the formal and informal.
The most tangible evolution of the suit, though, came from Dunhill. The London tailor’s collection was a triumph of forward-thinking design that mixed English eccentricity with a new-found elegance. The one-and-a-half breasted jacket appeared here as well (continuing on from where the brand left off last season), with concealed buttons that gave the garments a kind of kimono-like feel. Elsewhere in the collection, trousers were louche and loose, and jacket lapels were turned up to resemble qipao collars, which made for an internationally-minded look that mixed Western tailoring with Eastern details. As the world puts up barriers and walls and countries seek to seal themselves off from one another, tailoring is going through an intense diversification.
From left: Mr Sterling K Brown at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Los Angeles, 27 January. Photograph by Mr Stewart Cook/Variety/Shutterstock; Mr Rami Malek at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Los Angeles, 27 January. Photograph by SIPA USA/Press Association Images; Mr Mahershala Ali at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Los Angeles, 27 January. Photograph by AFF/Press Association Images
Away from the runway, the red carpet is a reliable indicator for how those trends can be diffused into something more wearable (not counting Mr Ezra Miller’s Moncler gothic glow-worm coat-dress at the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald premiere last year).
This week’s SAG awards saw some men who had levelled up their tailoring. Messrs Mahershala Ali and Sterling K Brown both donned suits by Ermenegildo Zegna, both wearing one-and-a-half-breasted jackets, while Mr Rami Malek wore a black wraparound-style tuxedo by Dior. They all looked great. Now, all the OHB jacket needs is a catchier name.