The battle never ceases as the X and Y have been jousting for ages; crawling on societal ruts for the relegation of should-bes and would-bes. But outlaws have always been there, willy-nilly-ing their ways, giving so called M-word, middle fingered F-word (no pun intended). Majorly, men have stayed away from feminine products like shapewear, lipsticks, nail paints, mascaras handbags, skirts et al, just to not to be labelled a poof or fop, apart from the firmly ingrained stereotypes of masculinity. But virility is more about innards than a façade.
Contrarily, women have since long been unhesitant to dig hands deep into their men’s wardrobe to experiment with different looks. Coco Chanel famously wore Boy Capel’s blazers and used men’s under wears to make dresses. From oxford shoes to business suits, androgyny is more and more taking the women fashion by storm, blurring gender lines in this new decade. Though men are slow to embrace feminine fashion but colors, flutters and prints are making inroads to bushy terrains.
Now it’s no more about King Louis XIV in high heels, dramatic drag queens and the rock stars glowering from mascara-ed eyes, brandishing nail-painted hands and screaming out of their red lips. The collective psyche is now more progressive and adaptive of such trend. Model turned actor, Jesse Randhawa opines, “Just wearing mascara or holding a handbag doesn’t make them less handsome provided it looks good on them. I feel all is good if it looks good and as long as it retains masculinity.” It’s not the case anymore that men are dabbing their girlfriend’s cream stealthily in a private space. The marketers around the world have by now conditioned the men to be assertive about men beauty products. Now, men have their own mascaras, face powders, concealers, eye creams, lipsticks, nail varnish and anti-ageing products. Designers like Jean Paul Gaultier and YSL are already making such products for men. Model Siddharth thinks mascara, anti-ageing creams and hair gels are fine but the products like lipsticks and concealers are not acceptable. He says, “Mascara really enhances the look of the male model on ramp. It renders intensity, mystery and infuses enough drama on ramp. But other beauty products are too feminine and look obscene.”
Earlier this year Vivienne Westwood in her Autumn Winter 2011 showcasing sent models in lipstick on ramps. Lipstick and stuble marry to give a paradoxical delight. But model Romey Kshal has a different take on this ironical union. He states, “I personally walked the ramp with metrosexual look once and I think its fine till that only for a change until it’s a look but I don’t think men should use lipstick and all because men should be men and we have beautiful women who look beautiful with lipsticks but not men. I don’t think that this trend will work and I can’t even imagine men in stilettoes.”
The metrosexual men of today are vying hard to bag the title of ‘free and fairer sex’. The thigh squishing mantyhoses, man bras, shapewear, murses and flowy skirts have provided ample options to men-who-care-fashion without a fear of being tagged as feminine. The mustachioed men in black, grey and blue with big egos seem to be a specie of past. Ramp is somehow the bellwether of the fashion trends which later seep in the society. The fluorescent colors which were restricted to ramp few years back are flooding the wardrobes of modern uber sexual men. Lately, at Milan Fashion Week designers like Yohji Yamamoto and Rick Owen presented the very flowy skirts, tunics and shirts for men in fabrics like shantung and silk.
So let’s see how non-conformist the next summers hold for us!
