016: It's Raining Men!
Hallelujah! It's Spring'25 Mens! Amen!
To set the mood for this week’s entry, it is absolutely essential to listen to and watch the music video for The Weather Girls’ 1983 classic “It’s Raining Men”. Delight in the sensuality of the female gaze, unhinged graphics, and utterly 80’s visuals. Martha Wash, Izora Armstead, and their cohorts embody concepts and colours that wouldn’t look all that out of place coming down JW Anderson and Prada’s menswear runways this week. Male dancers delivering a choreography in trench coats and little pants would be right at home alongside Jonathan Anderson’s perverting expectations; in the opening scene, Wash and Armstead wear electric blue and fire-engine red, fuchsia and royal purple (respectively), hues that certainly comprised of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’s vision for Spring 2025. Without any further ado, live from a finger print-smudge computer screen in New York City, entirely unsolicited musings on the Spring 2025 Menswear collections from your favourite Armchair Fashion Critic, c’est moi!
As much as I relish the seasonal womenswear collections and all the nutty made-up collections that buoy our interest and credit cards from spring into fall in spring and so on, I enjoy the more relaxed atmosphere surrounding menswear shows in Milan and Paris. Womenswear collections have become something of a circus, the focus increasingly less on the clothes themselves and more so on attendees and over-the-top staging in a sensory overload of distractions. At the Menswear shows for certain brands, gone are the usual front-row suspects, or with all the glitz pared back, they become less conspicuous; attendees are a more generous mix of normal (I use this term laxly, for fashion is a very abnormal industry) people with flecks of glamour and eye candy. Menswear also liberates me from cruel comparison, and I can relax and appreciate fashion for fashion’s sake.
Some brands, such as Wales Bonner, Martine Rose, and Lemaire, bypass the hubbub of the Womenswear calendar by showcasing their visions for the future during Menswear weeks. Their collections demonstrate greater accessibility and fluidity with regard to gender. Others, such as Christopher John Rogers and Jacquemus march entirely to the beat of their own drums during times of the year that catch one by delightful surprise.
All this to say, three beloved (to me) designers with whom I have parasocial relationships with – Jonathan Anderson, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons – rounded out the Menswear shows in Milan, and I enjoyed them thoroughly.
Prada
Creative directors of luxury brands are rarely ever women, with growing disparity since 2018. Miuccia Prada and the ascension and success of Prada is an anomaly, and when the queen of anomalies puts on a menswear show, it’s imperative we pay attention. So much of fashion, from luxury to fast, is constructed, executed and distributed at the behest of the male gaze; this is not to say that designers who are men are incapable of understanding the life and desires of a woman. Dries Van Noten, Azzedine Alaïa, and Christopher John Rogers are exceptions that come to mind, but other than a select few, not really all that many know or care to know about the psychology and physiology of women. Menswear from the vantage point of the female gaze is tantalizing.
Bracelet sleeves, easy ankle-length trousers, snug knits and smart jackets in happy shades of Spring, these are a few of my fa-vou-rite things! A smart knit over a sharp button-down paired with white trousers and Kiltie loafers: subtract the trousers and add a crisp mid-length white cotton skirt, and you have Miuccia Prada’s uniform of choice. There’s no reference quite like self-reference, a notion revitalized since Raf Simons’s arrival at Prada in a manner that is never tacky but rather honors one of the most revered woman designers. I was delighted to see past womenswear collections being referenced: the crinkled paper-cotton grey skirts of Spring 2023 reimagined as suits and the models’ descent onto the runway from Fall 2008. What is past becomes present. Instead of reinventing the wheel, which can only be done so many times, Prada and Simons perfect it.
Raf Simons isn’t for everyone, but he is for me. Some refer to him as a minimalist designer, but that’s the Jil Sander they’re talking about, so who he is is a designer who plays closely to and honors the brand ethos without overthrowing or overpowering it. Simons is hardcore techno youth subculture, mod, and post punk, deriving from a colour palette that could generate enough electricity to power a rave. Shocking yellows, lime greens, and Kraft-werk red is very Raf.
JW Anderson
I must confess, I love the Irish. I love the Irish love of resistance. I love their oddness. I love those who want to be Irish. I love the Irish in their short shorts and their hands modestly shoved into the pockets of their slouchy jeans. I love Irish men who aren’t afraid of a little (a lot) of bronzer and have an affinity for the finer, frillier things in life. No one encompasses some of my favourite things about the Irish quite like Jonathan Anderson. No one is capable of making me rethink my avian foe, the Pigeon, quite like Jonathan Anderson.
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There’s a weirdness about JW Anderson that enjoy. It isn’t loud like a shock or a punch to the gut but rather humorous and charming, off-kilter without being obnoxious. Some standouts from this season include a weathered leather dress that takes after a workman’s belt, boots on the cusp of paper-bag, a delectable bomber jacket with a hoop-like hem (is that a hoop-hem or are you just happy to see me?), and resin-and-lace bibbed knits that my husband and I debated who would get to buy – he said him, but what that really means is me.
After a decade of being formally acquainted with my husband, I’ve worn him down enough to take interest in some of my favourite designers and brands, one of them being JW Anderson. Last year on a trip to London, we visited the flagship store in Soho; I tried to push him towards kinky boots but settled on t-shirts and button-downs as middle ground (for now). You can tell Jonathan Anderson’s a bit of a nerd, mused by husband, which is what we both love about him. Take for example the model dressed in a navy flasher’s mac over a aqua PVC-like organza or muslin collar that takes something somewhat mundane and elevates it to potential lead video-game character status.
Here’s a man who also returns to himself, referencing Loewe-esque spongey leather bombers or his own uniform of denim and hands shoved firmly into pockets (although this time around his took his bow with flourish), and knows how to have fun, with quintessentially English facades and Irish stereotypes à la Guinness intarsia knits. Anderson previously worked as a window-dresser for Prada and stylist under Manuela Pavesi, Miuccia Prada’s beloved best friend and partner in crime. Perhaps the confidence of self-reference is in the Prada handbook, and I don’t mind it one bit. Do what you know best, and do it excellently.
Until next time! I’ve got an armchair to warm up for the next round of menswear shoes (but really I’m running dreadfully late for a hair appointment)!