THE JOURNAL
JW Anderson SS23 runway. Photograph by IMAXTREE.COM
When I started working at MR PORTER as a staff writer five years ago, menswear was in the throes of what I now realise was a particularly tempestuous change. Still wading through the hangover of “#Menswear”– the Pitti peacock look of picture-perfect Italian tailoring, Panama hats, silk cravats and a Savile Row sensibility – things were slightly buttoned-up. But, as Mad Men drew to a conclusion, what we wore was beginning to diversify and relax. We weren’t sporting shirts and suits to the office exactly, and I remember glances being exchanged when an overenthusiastic new member of staff showed up in one on his first day, but there were still unspoken sartorial boundaries that couldn’t be crossed. Plain T-shirts and muted sneakers (invariably by Common Projects) were the thing to wear. And nobody was running around with pink hair.
Five years later, and bam! Our London office – and the menswear industry in general – has a new uniform. Or, rather, it now has no uniform at all. In the flash of the pandemic, everything has changed. Gym shorts and hoodies are as commonplace as blazers, mixed in with slip-on sneakers, cargo pants, pearl necklaces, Cobain-esque mohair sweaters, baggy trousers, bold sunglasses and chipped nail polish. It’s chaos. But it’s also a lot more fun, and at a time when most of us could do with some.
“Fun product has always been out there, but nowhere near as mainstream as it is right now,” says Mr George Archer, MR PORTER’s Senior Buyer. “What’s helped is that guys have become less focused on the big brands and are more keen to try out something new.”
During his seven-year tenure at MR PORTER, Archer has been an instrumental force in evolving the brand, and says that men have become more confident in their choices. “It helps now that [celebrities] all feel far more confident with the way they dress,” he says. “And this has allowed a wider audience to come out of their comfort zone than in the past.”
Archer cites NBA player Mr Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who bravely donned a jockstrap in the recent SS23 Thom Browne runway, as well as rappers such as Kid Cudi, who last year wore a dress while performing on Saturday Night Live, as high-profile examples of this trend.
Thom Browne SS23 runway. Photograph by Isidore Montag/IMAXTREE.COM
It also helps that we’re living in a time where, however far you want to go with your clothes, there are plenty of brilliant designers who will cater to you. ERL, the brand founded by Venice Beach-based designer Mr Eli Russell Linnetz, creates vivid clothing in colours that look as though they have been churned out of a candy factory. Dries Van Noten, a traditional arbiter of taste (though no stranger to pushing boundaries), now makes bright pink sweatpants, while Balenciaga’s tailoring continues to be comically oversized. As brands continue to target Gen Z audiences through the use of influencers, in-store events, collaborations and marketing campaigns, a progressive approach to men’s trends has followed.
Paul Smith’s collection for SS23 included a kind of ode to the suit, but rather than any kind of retro throwback, the approach felt totally fresh. “I find that a suit fits my lifestyle,” says Sir Paul Smith. “When it’s a good suit that fits it can be very flattering and help the wearer to look strong and well put together. I think – and hope – there will always be times when a man wants to wear a suit, and I’m absolutely seeing that. The great thing with wearing a suit is it is surprisingly versatile without having to think about it too much. Most important of all is the way you wear it: smile and don’t take yourself too seriously.”
Not taking yourself seriously in a suit may seem like an oxymoron, but it’s an approach that seems to hold weight. This summer’s #GentleMinions TikTok craze had legions of suit-and-tie-wearing teens showing up to screenings of Minions: The Rise Of Gru. Some cinemas put up signs banning formalwear after reports of banana-throwing and disruptive behaviour emerged, but the most unusual thing about the whole saga was that it got hordes of young people wearing suits. They were getting dressed up to fit in with their mates, but it also showed that a serious tie and blazer can – in the right context – be a big joke, too.
“Most important of all is the way you wear it: smile and don’t take yourself too seriously”
If you’re lamenting this loss of rules in the wardrobe department, it’s not just TikTok and Gen Z – the internet at large is to blame. Nowadays, the most interesting conversations around male fashion happen on a global scale on social media, and the ones with the most traction are defined by their terminally unserious approach to the subject. “Your ex is having sex with someone else and you’re posting about Engineered Garments aircrew fatigues,” a recent meme on Throwing Fits quipped.
Mr Mark Boutilier, a prominent content creator famous for his tongue-in-cheek commentary on menswear, mostly posts a mixture of fit pics and fashion advice. But he gets the most engagement from his followers when he’s making jokes. In a recent TikTok video, he looks at the camera and says, “Let’s talk about the brand history of Balenciaga,” before pretending to read the brand’s Wikipedia page, butchering the founder’s name (Cristobal) to “Crystal Balls”, then finishing off with “They, uhh, made the Sock Runner”. It’s light-hearted fun, and Boutilier is a master at creating in-jokes that will resonate for anyone with an interest in fashion, busting the traditionally preening “fashion influencer” trope open to create content that is genuinely fun to engage with.
“The fashion-creator realm is so big at this point that regurgitated brand history videos and surface-level videos are not something that hold much impact,” he says. Instead, the Atlanta-based creator has built his own personal brand on being the class joker. His most recent hit has been a thrifted T-shirt he found, emblazoned with “Boner King” in a parody of the Burger King logo. “I always want to keep things fresh and keep people guessing,” he says.
In other words, menswear right now values something much harder to cultivate than style: a sense of humour. Good clothes don’t just need to look good anymore, they also need a point. Or – even better – a punchline.