Runway Shows

Paris Menswear Show Fall 2008

Dates: January 17, 2008 to January 20, 2008

For Young Men, Suits & Tuxedos Are Not Just For The Prom Anymore

PARIS, Jan 17, 2008 / FW/ - Last December, a Mastercard commercial in the U.S. featured a young man with long curly hair wearing jeans shopping for a Christmas gift for his mom. The next scene was Christmas dinner and the same young man walks in wearing a suit, his mother was so happy seeing him 'dressed up' while the young man was thinking that he was so glad he bought a suit instead of a crystal collectible, because suiting up was the best gift he could give his mother.

Yesterday, the International Herald Tribune reported, 'Youth market gets suited up,' proclaiming, "Moms of the world, rejoice! The men's suit is on a roll. While your 20-something son might be giving up his disheveled look, he will likely need to be bankrolled because it is this younger consumer, 25 to 40 years old, who is driving the designer and luxury suit market, fashion executives say."

Hence, after a Milan menswear season where there was a return to sensible dressing, and on the first day of the Paris season where there are 45 names on the official calendar, plus the IHT report, it is easy to assume that the said Mastercard commercial is right on target.

After years of seeing our young men in jeans, t-shirts and coats that look like they've been bought from a thrift shop or Salvation Army, it is nice to see them "all grown up" like their dads.

Yet, from the looks of it, they are wearing a different kind of tuxedo and suits that their fathers wore. Thanks to Hedi Slimane, the former Creative Director of Dior Homme who revolutionized men's dressing by cutting the silhouette pencil thin, these young men can differentiate themselves from their fathers.

(The signature Dior Homme Look, photo courtesy of Dior Homme)

Though not all of them can afford it, (Dior Homme suits starts at ?1,300, or US$2,000) or even fit in them (you have to be very slim), that started the ball rolling. Hedi Slimane made wearing suits young and hip!

Of course, there are other choices in the market. There is Neil Barrett, Costume National, Les Hommes, Versace, Prada and even Giorgio Armani, who last week was once again on the spearhead of sensible dressing that included young men in his repertoire.

In Paris, aside from Dior Homme, there is Kris Van Assche, (who will continue his own menswear line while at the same time being Creative Director of Dior Homme), Dries Van Noten, Raf Simons, Bruno Pieters and Jeroen Van Tuyl.

In New York, Duckie Brown has captured the eyes of the male fashionista. And of course, there is Tom Ford who launched his own menswear line in collaboration with Z Zegna.

So, what is the driving force for this move towards sensible dressing? Why is the 20 - 40 years old age group suiting up?

Is it their jobs? In the U.S., except for very few companies like law offices, "business casual" is the order of the day for office wear.

Did colleges and universities send out a new dress code? Except for military schools and very few private schools that prescribed uniforms to be worn, students can wear what they want.

Or, is it because this is just the right time? During the 1980s, people in general (male and female) 'dressed nice'. The popularity of nighttime soaps like 'Dallas', 'Falcon Crest' and 'Dynasty' wherein the actors are always dressed to the nines attest to that. Sociologically speaking, perhaps, it was also a backlash to the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s where the hippie look prevailed.

Then came extreme sports, hip-hop and the geeks of Silicon Valley where dressing down is 'cool'. Somehow, looking disheveled meant you are successful in one hand, and a rebel on another.

Now, the echo boomers, children of the hippies are all grown up. Even, the children of the Silicon Valley oligarchy like Steve Jobs, Steve Balmer, Steve Patrick and Bill Gates, to name a few, are at least on their teens.

And like the old saying, 'it skips a generation,' dressing up, which was considered the milieu of parents of baby boomers (the current generation's grandparents), it is time to return to elegance.

So, chinos and Dockers (the unofficial uniform of Silicon Valley) are passé. Looking like a hippie is out. Low waist jeans that are so low, your underwear show are so last season! Suits and jackets are in, and to use this current generation's word for 'cool', suiting up is 'dope.'

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