Impractical Clothes in the Real World

[alexpham]

I was flipping through the Spring/Summer issue of Menswear and read the interview with Narcisco Rodriguez. It featured some of his designs and amid the linen jacket and cotton shorts was a sleeveless white dress shirt. Not your ordinary cup of tea. I have seen the sleeveless shirt a couple of times on the runway but do these pieces ever actually make it into the hands of consumers?

A sleeveless dress shirt seems to have no practical value to me but I can see how it might be useful to a designer hoping to forge and expand their vision on the runway. Hopefully at this moment a man isn't going into Bergdorf's or Barney's and coming back out with a sleeveless dress shirt and tie.

 

[Jovan]

Anything else but long sleeve with a tie looks bad. End of story.

 

[kitonbrioni]

The only way to understand the "high" fashion items by obscure designers who are know only to insiders seems to be to take one of the "high" item and combine it with mundane other items from, say, Gap or Walmart. The insiders get it and the great unwashed will never get it. The head to toe look is for the rubes--the terminally unhip. To me, most of it is just ugly.

 

[LabelKing]

I love difficult fashion combined with really old fashioned things, so outdated, they're hip.

Besides, sleeveless dress shirts were worn by Punks, and they probably still do.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

I've always wanted to wear spats.

 

[stach]

Sleeveless yes, dress shirt no.

 

[Earthmover]

Originally Posted by kitonbrioni

The only way to understand the "high" fashion items by obscure designers who are know only to insiders seems to be to take one of the "high" item and combine it with mundane other items from, say, Gap or Walmart. The insiders get it and the great unwashed will never get it. The head to toe look is for the rubes--the terminally unhip. To me, most of it is just ugly.

Narciso is not obscure - he's been a favorite of the hollywood and NY stylemakers (for females) for more than 10 years now.

That said, I think Narciso is horrible - I don't agree with his aesthetic, and obviously his menswear choices are not, um, good.

 

[HitMan009]

Originally Posted by alexpham

A sleeveless dress shirt seems to have no practical value to me

I see so many people in Paris sporting this look. Hmm, I guess it's OK over here. A long sleeved shirt rolled up looks way more cooler IMHO.