RIDI-CUL
by Silvana Soffia

In the beginning there was the Man, and we all saw that Men’s fashion was good. There used to be no confusion between what a guy should wear and what he actually wore – thumbs down for handbags, strass shirts, pedal pushers (unless you’re a real fisherman), leggings, skirts (except of Scottish kilts, traditionally accepted as a reasonable males’ item of clothing), hot pants, fur coats and so on. On the other hand, he could choose between an endless variety of patterned and colored trousers, jeans, shorts, jackets, trenches, capes, hoodies, snickers, loafers… you name it. Even saucy, velvet skinny jackets, white bell-bottoms and flip-flops slowly, silently turned into a must-have in matter of men’s trend. Because of different needs and uses, history has been melting girl’s and guy’s collections, so far; no more strict rules, no taboos: we’re kind of free. But are we all seriously aware of how we dress up?

2013. Evolutionism seems to have turned male’s fashion into a tragedy. The border between what’s in and what’s out has been deleted all to the good of what can badly shock the public. Sometimes innovation fails, as Shaun Samson, Versace, J. W. Anderson, Fendi and Craig Green’s creations suggest us. A genuine reductio ad absurdum of the concept of men in terms of dress code has recently taken place among this year’s autumn/winter’ s collections, studded of “poetic licenses” such as super huge (and super she-kind) fur coats, wooden, plank shaped hats, fetish, post modern country suits, hairy tippets and, last but not least, manly skirts. If you’re a guy and you’re up to experience and improvise, well, go for them, or better: Be free with your tempo, be free, surrender your ego, be free to yourself, dear 2013’s Man. It’s not just a matter of metrosexuality and aesthetic sense, no, it’s much more. It’s concept. You can wear no matter how many female’s accessories, matching them in heaps of different ways, you can even reshape your own face, you can venture and provoke and play with your style, and you’ll still be a genuine sample of manhood.

Impressive.

And, sometimes, ridiculous.

But what does the stronger sex think about fashion? Let’s ask to the most sharpest look ever, Tommy Ton’s one. The man he captures in Milan, Florence, NY and London’ Street Style’s pics is no longer lured by duplicity, tricks and peccadilloes, not even pushed to overstate his sense of taste to feel comfortable. “Stop chatting, we’re working!” he says, because in our present we seriously have no time to lose, not even for good shopping.

His male is dressy but not outré, nob but not too snob, self confident, trendy and everything but ambiguous. He prefers classy trenches, funny but elegant patterned trousers, pocket-handchiefs, fashionable striper shirts and neckties to skirts, meggings and leather suits.

“No room for ridi-cul-e (which, in Italian, can be split in ridi = you laugh and cul = ass)”, they murmur.

Amen. Can we add more?

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