The recent fall 2023 menswear fashion week experimented with unconventional silhouettes and gender codes, but remained conservative when it came to body diversity.
Alessandro Michele may have departed Gucci, but the blurring of gender lines in menswear—which he was a proponent of—remains. Redefining masculinity has been a much-discussed topic for a while and was one of FW23’s defining features. Additionally, this season played with silhouette and proportion: oversized, askew, swaddled. Unsurprisingly, suits and tailoring were prevalent, while too-long sleeves and shoulders on steroids provided excitement.
Prada played with gender codes via suede, apron-like dresses in neutral tones. Layered over trousers, shirt, and tie, it was a new take on a work uniform, merging the leather apron of a welder with a three-piece suit – perhaps a comment on class as much as on gender codes. At Gucci’s first show without Michele at the helm, woolen maxi skirts had dramatic front slits, exposing the inside to be lined like a suit. Notably, both examples were made from materials traditionally associated with menswear and workwear, allowing for gender exploration while maintaining a degree of conventional masculinity.
In some places, the subversion of menswear was more subtle than dresses and skirts, leaning into sensual, romantic silhouettes with feminine associations. Saint Laurent presented cowl necks and elegant draping, including a reprisal of the draped hood silhouette featured in their latest women’s show. Rather than worn with a shirt and tie, a suit jacket was worn over a pussy-bow blouse, reminiscent of the way that some women would wear the famous Le Smoking suit, the women’s tuxedo created by Yves Saint Laurent in the ’60s.
Regarding proportions, at Prada, Raf Simons’ signature bomber jackets were blown up into egg-shaped cocoons. Progressively shorter garments were layered on top of each other at Givenchy, the top layer looking like it was shrunk in the wash. Buttons were designed to be done up in the “wrong” place at Bianca Saunders and Hed Mayner. Egonlab gave us trousers dropped down to the thighs and suspended by a bodysuit, while Loewe presented shaved shearling coats with huge, bulbous sleeves.
Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, in particular, focussed on the properties of different materials and how they can affect silhouettes. Several looks had a stiffness about them, such as coats made from beaten copper and pewter. Shirts made from parchment paper (vellum) didn’t mold to the body but stood away from it instead, collar and shoulders raised a few inches. A lilac knit at Martine Rose was similar, almost giving the impression of a shrunken head, Beetlejuice style.
Crop tops were seen at Dsquared2 and Acne Studios, continuing the thread of sensual menswear, while asymmetric tops left models’ arms exposed at Fendi and Louis Gabriel-Nouchi. The latter, whose eponymous label was founded in 2017, was praised on social media for including body diversity in the show’s casting. Japanese brand Doublet also cast a few plus-size male models, but body diversity was lacking from mainstream fashion houses. With menswear becoming more experimental season by season, the lack of body diversity indicates that gender and sexual exploration, and unconventional fashion in general, is only considered chic on one type of male body.
It’s no secret that menswear lags behind womenswear in plus-size casting. In recent years female plus-size models have made the jump from emerging to established runways. (Albeit, only a select few.) And while it was refreshing to see gender codes challenged this season, there’s room for improvement in body diversity.
Imagery courtesy of Prada and Loewe.
