It’s Not A Guy Thing

Another London resident,a banker,took me to the mega sports store,Lillywhites,when I was once researching British department stores for an article,telling me about its ‘fabulous’ history. He then spent the next hour buying one pair of football shoes. No,Lillywhites didn’t make it to my story.

A former editor,male,gorgeous and brilliant in the newsroom,insisted on wearing printed Fabindia kurtas over jeans to work. I ended up asking him not to,saying it was assaulting my aesthetics.

As India’s second serving of Men’s Fashion Week concludes,quietly,suffice to say that men’s fashion will never be as popular as women’s in this country or anywhere. No one wants to attend a menswear fashion show. Male models are paid pennies compared to their female colleagues. Men’s fashion magazines are a blip compared to business-breaking women’s glossies.

But ah,the men’s retail market—this is where the big bucks lie. Any mall across this country practically survives on its men’s clothing stores. This only means one thing—men (regular common-folk and not celebrities) enjoy their vanities as much as women do. Arguably more so.

Which makes it tougher for clothes-makers,retail or designers. How much can you do with a shirt and trousers? Menswear is tricky business. It’s easy to embellish a sari or a kameez with sequins or embroidery,but these surface techniques make our husbands and boyfriends look like dandies. Often,most of them don’t listen.

Then there’s the middle-age dread. Men don’t deal with 40 as maturely as (most) women do. Women will come to terms with their jiggle-wiggles and change their dress code. All of women’s fashion these days is about the grown-up woman and Phoebe Philo at Celine is perfectly bringing about that change. There’s also a jeans label cleverly called Not Your Daughter’s Jeans that’s meeting success among the ladies.

But men take their rebirth literally. They begin to dress as if they are teenagers again. A friend’s husband picked up everything that had flowers on it from Zara Man. Another husband got his ear pierced. Wasn’t life much simpler when men bought a new Mercedes at 40 or,well,had an affair?

There are some who get it right. I once accompanied my very charismatic and stylish grandfather to Charagh Din. In 20 minutes,he picked out six lovely (read ‘manly’) shirts from a mountain of paisley. He shoes were always Bally and always polished by his own hands. They outlived him.

A famous Mumbai orthopaedist is the most elegant man I’ve ever met. In his seventies,he wears tortoise-shell specs,well-worn Bally shoes and the most beautiful croc skin belt from Hermes I’ve ever seen. He speaks so gently and beautifully,he makes you wish you tore a ligament every day.

But men like these belong to another generation. Which is why a men’s fashion week is important to all of us.

namratanow@gmail.com