Bring Back Masc Men
After falling through an Internet black hole of conservative straight men and hearing how oppressed they are in these modern times, I was compelled to explore this idea of toxic masculinity through fashion.
Bring Back Masculine Men! Where did they go?
Viewing current male celebrities across the internet being compared to World War soldiers and hearing arguments about how those time were better than now because 'back then men were men' is where I chose to start my exploration.
What is a man? And what do they wear? Office finance bros and their formal attire, Butch military men in uniform. I wanted to take these garments and transform them into something opposing to the conservative mindset of the online incel keyboard warriors and their misogynistiapodcasts. Menswear is functional, so I decided to make something modular and multi functional. A formal mens shirt that is transformed and deformed, from a recognisable staple in a mans wardrobe, to something other, feminine, non-masculine.
dAlso exploring the irony of masculinity and how the more hyper masculine something becomes the queerer it gets. From finance bro to feminine queer to leather daddy. These few looks explore all these ideas.
Paint Splatter
My Father is the inspiration for my collection. When my dad was 17, he moved to London around 1969, 1970 and lived there for ten years working as a painter decorator. I have always found this time of his life very interesting .
While working as a painter decorator he travelled all over London using the tube. I used the 1970s map of the underground to create interesting and innovative pattern cutting and also used my dads real work clothes as a base for the collection. The collection moves from painters tarps and workwear to casual and formal. This was to show the flow from work life to personal life. I used drape inspired by painters tarps draped over furniture to protect them from paint splatters, as a way of bringing interesting shapes into the garments. The collection is unisex with a masculine edge as the base is from my father's actual clothes, while the drape makes it slightly feminine. The colours are loosely inspired by the tube map, a white background with different colour lines traveling through each look. I then used house paints splatter on the garments to give a contemporary look to each garment. With workwear in mind the main fabric of the collection is a white denim drill and cotton. I then used waxed cottons, PVC and masking tape for details, the PVC is also used to give a wet paint look to enhance the collection.
