EDITOR'S LETTER: October 2014

Well, I guess since the last time I posted it was Spring, heading into Summer, one could say I took a little “Blogging Summer Vacation". In my fashion, it was much needed because think about when your favorite singer or band is producing great work from their new album, and you favor them so much that even their old material seems just as fresh as their new single. You are on a hiatus, but as all good things come to an end, the band has to rest and recuperate from promoting the art you love so much. After coming down from your high of their insatiable music, you crave more, but there is such a void while they are away. You feel selfishly impatient as slight feelings of disdain for their absence leaves you feeling personally abandoned (kinda the way I feel about Rihanna right now if you get where I am coming from). But during their absence, we have to realize they too are only human and in order to continue bringing world shaking music to our lives, we must allow them to renew and soak in new experiences so as to translate them into new classics on our personal playlist. 

That is what I think of my break from #IMFblog. In my May Editor’s Letter, I mentioned how I have been building my sensibility as a stylist and have been conditioning myself to be a most effective and efficient stylist/style mentor with my ongoing theme The Secret of Stylist. In doing so I hope to answer the question how can we apply the experiences of successful stylists to improving our own style sensibility by examining the commonalities and differences between different stylists approaches to style. For me, this summer has been about taking what I have read and studied, and taking the time to practice what I learned instead of blogging about it for a while to gain a fresh and more mature perspective, especially as I was able to apply some of what I learned at Forever 21 as I styled the mannequins.  For instance, one trend I have been experimenting with is “women repelling”. When I think about it I have been women repelling for a while now for I enjoy women's clothes because having a thin frame I find a lot of their clothes (especially menswear inspired women's wear) fit and look more flattering on me. But lately I have been going as far as to  wear a string (or strings) wearing pearls with my button-ups going into work, knee highs on club nights, and delicate floral prints. I find it a fun challenge to find different ways to wear them on myself in combination with other masculine pieces as to suggest a masculine appeal in combination even though these pieces are traditionally feminine. Right before I went on my “Summer Vacation”, I picked up the Summer 2014 H&M magazine and was satisfyingly titillated to read the trend report “Beyond the Suit” by Lauren Sherman. Thanks to Leandra Medine, founder of the popular style blog “Man Repeller”, the term “Man Repelling” or wearing cool, quirky clothes that guys don’t really get has been the term for fashion forward women as of late. But as Sherman highlights it appears the concept is bleeding into the dressing sensibilities of this generation of men, and it's not just for the gays, in my fashion.

I think men are seeing clothes as simply clothes and that a gender association doesn't mean much in regards to ideals of masculinity when you consider our modern social climate. In my fashion, women repelling DOES NOT say I want to be a like woman. Instead it says, “Yeah, I am wearing a dress, AND I am still the top dog!” It’s almost a new proclamation of masculinity, one that adheres to feminist ideals of equality among the sexes, where the man is proclaiming how much he can look like a women, but still ooze masculine appeal. As I have observed, its almost like the sixties all over again with women and hemlines. The hems of men’s shirts seem to becoming acceptingly longer and longer among young consumers, and as Sherman’s article shows examples of men in women repelling looks, it appears we can take hemlines where ever we want. Taking after men like Kanye West and Jared Leto, men are not afraid to experiment with different accessories and more feminine hairstyles. With the right amount of cool machismo and creative combinations with other masculine pieces, a skirt on a man doesn't look as feminine as one might think, and this type of view on clothing is, in my fashion, our generation’s fashion revolution. 

At VA PrideFest 2014

I have written about this before on #IMFblog, case in point, Casey Legler, who is the first female ever signed to Ford Modeling Agency’s men board. In my post READing Your Style: Androgynous models who ignore the gender rules, I quoted Legler from an article in the UK Guardian, and she stated: "We have very strict ways in which we identify ourselves as men or women and I think that those can sometimes be limiting … Seeing me on the men's board … speaks to a notion of freedom, you know. There's something really bold about that … it's saying there is also this other way and it's really rad." Her statement is the basic reasoning for which I wore the look in this post with my zebra print caftan belted with a silky track jacket (both of the latter were from H&M coincidentally), black leggings, and Chelsea boots. I wore them at this year’s Richmond Gay Pride this past weekend, and felt this was the perfect time to break out this look during that time. Women Repelling really speaks to the notion that clothes are clothes and we should feel comfortable to express and celebrate both our masculine and feminine qualities that make us individually unique. I personally like playing with the idea that to be a man doesn't necessarily mean one has to wear a suit and tie day in and day out.We all have feminine and male qualities, and to embrace those qualities regardless of which sex we are is how we will attain self-actualization of who we are in this life. 

At VA PrideFest 2014

It was funny to me to read Sherman’s article where she writes: “Stephanie Trong, co-editor-in-chief of Fashionista.com, would rather her guy look like Ryan Gosling than a street style head turner. ‘I’m more into guys who do the sportswear thing, and who don’t look like they spent more than ten minutes deciding what to wear,’ she says.” Unfortunately for Trong, it would seem that this breed of men is dying off as more men clamor over fashion like high school girls. As I mentioned in November of 2012, New York Magazine reported that “the luxury Men's fashion market is growing at 14% per year, twice as fast as the women's market which has shown a steady growth of 8% per year”. With this trend taking off the way it has, I can’t help but think about the chant we use to say to the opposite sex from our grade school days, “I can do anything better than you.” It’s as if men have decided, “If you can wear a dress, why can’t I?” and, in my fashion that is a very valid question to ask. As Tim Gunn has informed us, a lot of the popular fashions modernly associated with women, were most likely, in the past, begun by men. So it’s no wonder we are coming around full circle in fashion history, because after all, fashion doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does have a way of having the same rhythm as past time periods. 

Certified Women Repeller! This isn't too feminine is it? What do you think?

Speaking of time periods, now that the Spring/Summer 2015 shows are coming to close today, I can really assess what is to come of fashion's future, so it’s back to the grind, and I will keep you posted with my sartorial philosophies.

READing Your Style: Androgynous models who ignore the gender rules

Casey Legler (35), being represented by Ford Model's Male Board as of November 2012

Last month, Homa Khaleeli, writer for the UK's Guardian, insinuated this past November that fashion may be showing signs that the fashion world is opening its arms to reflect the diversity of our bodies. As she mentioned in the article, Agyness Deyn, is one supermodel whose androgynous look has made her quite dynamic in the fashion world, a model who made headlines this year for her masculine features was Ford model, Casey Legler, who is actually signed to the agency as the first female added to the men's board. I found this news very impacting because as Legler says:

"We have very strict ways in which we identify ourselves as men or women and I think that those can sometimes be limiting … Seeing me on the men's board … speaks to a notion of freedom, you know. There's something really bold about that … it's saying there is also this other way and it's really rad."

Khaleeli also posed the question of whether this type of development in modeling is the "latest fad to provide shock value."She  threw around the names Lea T and Andrej Pejic as examples of models who have crossed over to appealing to women's wear, as Lea T is a successful transsexual model, and Andrej Pejic, a male model, has become a dresses muse for designers like Jean Paul Gaultier. I was amused by Liu Xianping, the 72 year old grandfather who models for his teen granddaughter's online fashion company, Yecoo. In the New York Daily News, he says of his modeling women's clothes: "Why unacceptable (for someone like me to wear women’s clothes ? Modeling for the store is helping my granddaughter and I have nothing to lose," he said "I’m very old and all that I care about is to be happy." Camilla Nickerson, Vogue  Contributing Editor, said fashion reports on the world at large, and the acceptance of such radical sartorial expressions in fashion shows a proliferation in our culture that speaks towards the fact that there are many types of people. Our history as a people is so expansive and we are all able to draw many influences for our views on life and, in my fashion, we all should feel free to express exactly who we are when we walk down the street.

Liu Xianping, the 72 year old grandfather who models for his teen granddaughter's online fashion company, Yecoo.

In my fashion, globalization has defined this generation as one that doesn't look to conform to traditional social constructs. Legler exemplifies a new "sexy" women of our time, which are these women of today who wear men's clothes as a part of who they are, namely lesbians. Women can feel comfortable to appeal to other females now a days, and there is a market for these women in fashion, especially if they wish to pay top dollar for quality, designer pieces. Its funny when I look at Legler's Ford portfolio online I am astounded by how her masculine appeal comes across so crystal clear and without knowing she's a women, she certainly translates the sexiness of a man. Her jaw, her shoulders, boxy frame, her musculature is all so strongly defined, and as a women, they are what make her, "her". But there is more to it than simply her look, because there is air of a certain attitude, like that "carefree strength" of a man—an "I don't have to try hard to be tough" aura. I love the lines her feminine body makes in such a natural masculine sensibility. Underneath Legler's sharp masculine edges, I am drawn into her photos because she still emotes the depth of a women. Although her womanly appeal is not apparent, but as Pablo Picasso says, "The hidden harmony is better than the obvious." In my fashion, the last photo (shown below) of her portfolio where she wears a distressed camel shirt and shorts combo with red accents is very emblematic of this notion.

In my fashion, the growing cultural acceptance of cross-dressing, transexuality, and experimentation of sexual expression ushers a new level of self-discovery. People should not be limited from exploring who they are, and if have a particular interest I don't feel persons should be restricted from doing what they can do best. If you don't know what you don't like, how will you know what you do like and what works for you. I come from the understanding that we are all a mixture of different qualities and its our duty to find out what are our strongest qualities are so we can contribute to other people's lives in a most positive fashion. Positivity comes in many forms, and one never knows when or where a blessing will come to them. I think it wise not to assume that a man can't do what a women can do, and vice versa. In the aforementioned instances of models modeling for the opposite sex, the brands that recognized their specific appeal and exploited their talent have made positive gains for those businesses in marketing, revenues, and press. In my fashion, the demographic of people who can relate to these images is growing. "Fashion is a reflection of the times," right? Those men turned out to be the right people for the job, as shown by sales figures and press, and Legler proves to do just as good a job as men. In my fashion, while the trend turns out to be a lucrative marketing ploy, the fact that these images are becoming more popular and proliferated is what will make the trend more socially acceptable.