jrd617
Stylish Dinosaur
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2009
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Reevolving can stay. Cause this is coming back:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...902203746.htmlOn the Loose: a New Baggy Look for Men By RAY A. SMITH Style memo to men: Exhale. After years of showing snug, skinny and even constricting clothing, some menswear designers are in a more relaxed mood. Fashion houses such as Calvin Klein Collection, Comme des Garçons and Louis Vuitton put fuller, wider cuts in their runway collections for this year, featuring baggy pleated pants and voluminous, flowing shirts and coats. "It was the right time to change the silhouette" after seasons of tight clothing, says Italo Zucchelli, men's creative director of Calvin Klein Collection whose fall 2011 collection at New York fashion week featured full, pleated pants and oversized bomber jackets. "Sometimes it's almost like your eye is looking for something else, looking for a new direction, a new feel," he adds. Yet mainstream brands—as well as many men—have only recently gotten comfortable with the slimmer silhouettes that flooded the catwalks in recent years. "It took us a long time to get men into flat-front pants," says Nickelson Wooster, men's fashion director at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. "I don't think either the customers or the stores are ready to throw that away." With fitted clothing still selling well, retailers see the new silhouette as a look for the fashion-forward, at least initially. While Bergdorf Goodman now carries long, drapey T-shirts from Rick Owens and plans to carry pleated trousers from Dries Van Noten, Mr. Wooster says it will take a while for fuller looks to reach regular guys. In menswear, "the pace of change is glacial," he says. "As more men see more images of newer fits, then over time, their eyes will adjust." For some designers, however, the shift is sharp. Even lines like Dior Homme and Thom Browne, once poster children for supernarrow, body-hugging silhouettes, have been adding more wiggle room to their clothes. Mr. Browne says he likes to play with classic looks' silhouettes and proportions "to make them not so classic." For fall 2011, that meant some baggy pants, including roomy jodhpurs, on the runways. Dior Homme started getting baggier last spring. Mr. Wooster cites designer Tom Ford as a key influence on the emerging silhouette. Mr. Ford, he says, "has proposed a more aggressive clothing model that has a bigger shoulder, wider lapel and a longer jacket." Tom Ford's latest collection also includes pleated pants. The looser look may come as a relief to many of the men who squeezed themselves into slim-cut pants and shirts in recent seasons. Karl Lagerfeld wrote in a 2004 book that he was motivated to lose some 90-odd pounds in 13 months in part by the desire to fit into Dior Homme's skinny clothing. But before men rejoice, style experts say, they should consider that baggy pleated pants aren't as forgiving as men think. "You have to be tall, you have to be in shape" to pull them off, says Mr. Zucchelli of Calvin Klein. "They're not for everybody," including, he says, himself. Mr. Wooster concurs. "I think flat-front trousers always look cleanest, regardless of body type." Men who still want to cling to tighter styles don't have to worry. Prada and Versace are among the labels sticking to closer-fitting clothes. Even Mr. Browne isn't completely abandoning his signature look. And the exaggerated runway looks may not be as wide and full when the clothes actually reach stores. At Saks Fifth Avenue, the relaxed silhouette and pleated pants will show up "in our advanced designer area," said Eric Jennings, men's fashion director. But this is "a specific niche audience in only a handful of locations across the country." Still, he noted one more constituency for pleated pants. "We'll still have some pleats for our traditional, conservative customer who never really switched to flat-front trousers in the first place."
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