The Cutting Class

Bearded Male Models from the SS12 Menswear Collections of Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, Umit Benan, Ann Demeulemeester and Piombo.

Often the menswear collections of the past few years have been modelled by svelte young boys who are so fresh faced that it looks as though they may not have even started shaving yet. In the more recent Menswear collections for Spring-Summer 2012 it seemed as though many different facial hair variations were presented - everything from unkempt stubble to neatly trimmed moustaches and full grown beards.

The interesting thing about this choice of casting and styling, is that it lends the clothes a more worn in quality. There is something about the fact that the models hair has been left looking more individual that gives the models more ownership over the clothes. Whereas the freshly shaven young boys look as though they have been carefully groomed, before putting them into pristine clothing samples - the models with facial growth look as though they just walked in off the street, out of their everyday lives and onto the catwalk.

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk and Style.com.

Junya Watanabe Man, SS12.

Patches were the perfect complement to the many variations of overalls at the Spring-Summer 2012 show for Junya Watanabe Man. Both contrast fabrics and self-on-self patches were used to create layered designs focusing around pockets that then spread across the fronts and sides of shirts. It appeared that the patches were applied both on top of the fabric, and also from underneath the main shell fabric, and held in place by a variety of zigzag and twin needle stitches.

Sewing patches onto a garment can cause either the base or patch fabric to buckle while you’re sewing. One way around this is to use bondaweb» - a product by Vilene that is basically like a double sided fusing with a paper backing. This allows you to iron adhesive side down (as you would a normal fusing) and then peel off the paper backing to reveal the second side of adhesive. You can then place the patch in position on the base cloth as needed and iron into place. This will form a strong bond making it a much simpler process to sew on any functional or decorative topstitching.

Junya Watanabe image from Vogue.co.uk». Technical images from The Cutting Class.

Piombo, Mens, SS12.

Although a simple white background can often be the safest way to showcase clothes without distraction, designers are increasingly experimenting with more colourful and detailed back drops that lend their garments more personality. For some collections, the back grounds really serve to give the collection a new context - it can create a story around the more simple garments, or can make serious eveningwear more playful.

There is also an element about these examples shown for Piombo and Roberto Cavalli, where you get a sense of the designers mood boards coming alive to set the stage for the collections. And at Giles the studio back drop also gives a hint of the moodboards in the background - you can see rows of historical portraits lining the wall on the right hand side that appear to have been used on the digital prints of the garments. Plus in the Giles images you get the fun of watching the soft toys shuffle around the frame and even get to play “Where’s Giles?”.

Images from Style.com».

The fashion media has a way of sensationalising trends - everything with a scrap of colour has been dubbed “colour blocking” recently, and it only takes a couple of celebrity pictures before they start heralding the new must have bag, the new must have shoe that replaced the must have bag or of course the easy target of the “new” black. The energetic language that enthuses over the next phase every season is part of what keeps the fashion cycles turning - of course red looks new when you’ve just seen a lot of blue and crisp pastels will look fresh when we’ve just filled our wardrobes with muted dusky tones. Despite the fact that this can make for repetitive reading for the savvy consumer, it’s generally harmless, and simply a bit of over simplification for the sake of creating a story or pushing a product.

So it is mainly when gender is used as a trend or selling point that fashion language hyperbole goes into tricky territory. Perhaps it has always been this way but it seems that of late there has been a particular focus on the trend of “Masculine” dressing for women that raises some interesting questions. When the media start using masculine and feminine as adjectives to describe an outfit it assumes that the reader is going to associate all sorts of other attributes to the clothes. For example, when a journalist says that a shirt is masculine are they referring to anatomy, to a cut of clothing more suited to the male body? Or are they using the word to recall the stereotypes that we have of what it means to be masculine?

Topshop Newsletter and Website, July 2011. Some images visible here» at time of post.

Often it seems that the terms are used to represent opposites that play into the stereotypes of feminine meaning soft, delicate, fragile, pink, sparkly as opposed to masculine meaning strong, bulky, large, tough etc. In the screen grabs of the Topshop newsletter and website above, the language used definitely reinforces the idea of feminine and masculine dressing being opposites. The feminine “prim and polished” trends use the flowery language of “sweet” and “delicate” to describe pleats and prints. In contrast the masculine theme inspired by the mods uses “sleek tailoring”, “rebellious” and “outlandish” to describe the collection. It must be said of course that Topshop are going for a 1960s theme here, so it does play into more old fashioned ideas of what it means to be a man or woman. But this seems to be part of the problem… as soon as you start dividing fashion up into masculine and feminine, it does seem dated. The old notions of what it means to be a man or a woman has evolved so much that surely simplifying the description of feminine and masculine dress codes in this way is going to lead to a lot of misunderstanding?

Shop Til You Drop, 2011. Some images visible here» at time of post.

Screenshots from Vogue.co.uk. Images visible here» at time of post.

Then there’s the problem of where you draw the line between what is feminine dress and what is actually masculine. In the screen grabs above it seems that the definition for what constitutes masculine dress is now anything tailored - be it blazers, trousers, or halter neck jumpsuits. If it’s monochrome, oversized or drop shoulder, it’s possible that again you are probably dressing like “one of the boys”.

At the end of the day surely this is all based on context, and what we consider to be masculine or feminine dress today will shift season after season over the years ahead of us. And I’m sure that when women first began to wear trousers back in the 1930s and 40s perhaps it came as a bit of a surprise, but after seventy odd years wouldn’t you think that some of the garments such as trousers, blazers and shirts would have shrugged off their male only label?

From Top Left, Image 1 - Marlene Dietrich in a Coco Chanel suit, 1933 (via Fashion Encyclopedia»), Image 2 - Woman in Nautical Trousers (via Vintage Dancer»), 1940s, Image 3 - Women in 1940s dress (via Virtual Womens Makeup Zone»).

If this seems like a one sided article, then this is because this appears to be a largely one-sided problem at the moment. The guys seem to be able to get away with wearing pink, frills, or gemstones in their menswear collections without it being dubbed feminine.

This is also a problem that can be easily avoided - just don’t use gender to describe clothes. If a blazer is sleek, tailored, crisp, strong or boxy then there are plenty of words such as these that will describe the garment, without insinuating that a woman may be cross dressing by wearing it. It is equally true that every delicate, light weight or floral garment does not have to be dubbed feminine. There are many shades of what it means to be feminine or masculine, so it is a shame not to use the full scope of vocabulary to describe the dress codes of both sexes and to allow for all the grey area in between.

Chanel, Couture, AW11.

Hidden amongst the boucles and tweeds at the Chanel couture collections were some incredible buttons that were as beautiful as brooches. There were also some trims that on closer inspection seemed to have been designed to directly mimic the look of chain, and this ran around the edges of cuffs, hems and collars. Of special note were also some dresses that were covered entirely in buttons and buttonholes, that from afar would have only looked like a pattern, or polka dot effect. Being couture I wonder if all these little buttonholes were sewn by hand with a buttonhole stitch…

Images from Vogue.co.uk».

Knitting 3D Patterns, a documentary on the work of Borre Akkersdijk.

The way of the future for fashion is not simply through new designs but also in rethinking the industry including all aspects of how we use, wear, make, recycle, market and sell our clothes. One of the most fascinating areas of fashion design that requires hours of research and development is in the manufacture of garments, especially when a designer or production manager wants to try to use new manufacturing methods.

The video above shows a unique example of how existing machines used for making the thick, wadded fabric designed for mattresses have been reappropriated by Borre Akkersdijk to put them into a garment context. Large round knitting machines are often used for creating tubes of jerseys, cotton ribs for singlet tops etc. In the context of mattresses they have more 3D capabilities and Akkersdijk has really seized on this ability to engineer garments in multiple directions.

One of the most intriguing parts of the video is where Huub Waulthers, the knitting Product Developer, explains how a combination of threads are used for their different properties. There are top threads to provide the coloured outer layer while a polyamide thread is used to draw together the different layers due to it’s strength and durability (picture the fine strength of fishing line). Between these threads are thicker threads that are used to create the filling of the more built up areas, and another thinner thread shrinks under heat and steam, meaning that the fabric takes on it’s more dynamic shape after a hit with the iron.

Through the sketches, to the technical drawings (with pixel measurements sketched in the borders) you can see how each design has to be carefully thought out in its entirety in order for all the measurements and different threads to all come together. The result is knitted 3D panels with the textured appearance of quilting, that have a less dense border area to allow for a manageable seam allowance.

The nice cherry-on-the-top of this whole process is that the concept has been carried through from beginning to end with a very contemporary feel. Though Akkersdijk claims to not be a fashion designer, and claims that they are just basic shapes that he is using, the resulting garments do not feel like the process has overwhelmed the end product. From the colours chosen to the focused use of techniques the pieces seem like they would sit right at home amongst pieces by other designers such as Chalayan, Miyake and Kawakubo. It seems that from the work on his website, Akkersdijk has the ability to apply his different skills to different innovative projects and this has enabled the whole concept to side step being a fashion/tech novelty.

Video Stills from “Knitting 3D Patterns”, a documentary on the work of Borre Akkersdijk. Look book images of “Ready-Made” Collection from ByBorre.com».

Burberry Prorsum, Menswear, SS12.

Although buttons and zips are always used in abundance in the collections it was nice to see some variations of fastenings, particularly in the Menswear shows. The designers featured have used the fastenings to be a functional and aesthetically pleasing part of their designs, rather than be purely utilitarian and hidden away. At Burberry Prorsum this included what hooks to be a variation on a hook and bar, or oversized hook and eye, and there was more metal hardware at Dior Homme where a ring motif was used.

At Ann Demeulemeester there was a small chain fastening that was perfectly inkeeping with the low slung drape of her garments, but there was also a handstitched detail that turns simple press studs, into shapes that looked like small wheels. Lanvin interestingly used both zips and buttons along the same closure and also used studs but in a dark contrast metal against a white coat. And at Comme des Garçons the use of toggles gave the soft tailoring a more naive look.

Images from top to bottom, all from Menswear SS12 - Image 1 Dior Homme, Images 2 & 3 Ann Demeulemeester, Images 3 & 4 Lanvin and Image 5 Comme des Garçons.

Images from Vogue.co.uk».

Valentino, Couture, AW11.

There were some exquisite details used in the recent Valentino Couture collection for Autumn-Winter 2011. From fine plaited trims, to near invisible laces, and rows of tiny pearls that were handsewn into position. There was a real respect for the beauty of the fabrics in these garments that made intricate handwork and time consuming beading appear light and effortless.

The fastenings for these garments were also fine and elegant including invisible zips, hook and eye closures, and self-covered buttons. Covered buttons are often used in high end garments and bridal wear for their ability to blend seamlessly with the garment. Essentially you create small circles in your chosen fabric and gather the fabric around the button with a thread that runs around the outside of the circle of fabric. You then stitch the fabric securely in place and the backing plate then clips into the back of the button to hold the fabric in place. Covered buttons can generally be bought in kits and come in different materials as shown below.

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk». Covered button images from MacCulloch & Wallis».