By Lisa Gosling
Men may have more fun shopping for clothes if they had a larger selection of colours, fabrics and styles to chose form. Walk into any clothing store on Yonge Street and you’ll notice there’s more variety in women’s clothing than there is in men’s.
But third-year fashion students are busily preparing for e-male, this year’s men’s wear show that promises to give guys alternatives to their T-shirts and jeans.
The show will feature clothing ranging on their garments since September, when they formed groups of five and chose a concept to work with. Each student had to create a top, pants and a knit sweater.
“[This year’s designers] are trying to move men away from the pre-existing thought-patterns concerning fashion,” says Janelle Cagodan, one of the designers featured the show. She says guys need to be more conservative” Kelly says. “If a man wear something that’s too flamboyant,he tends to be teased about it.”
Kelly says men’s fashion has made some progress over the years. She uses the pink shirts some men wear under dark suits as an example, pointing out men usually get those shirts as gifts from their wives or girlfriends.
“Men will wear subtle things like a pink shirt,” Kelly says. “But I don’t think you’ll see a guy wearing a pink suit.”
The student designers haven’t let this stop them from experiment.
Melissa Tung’s group decided to work with a World War I sailor-style theme, modernized with morse code patterns and accented colour lines. Tung says her group wants its clothes to be different, but not so different guys will shy away from wearing them.
Shauna Belize’s group designed a collection that is a little more risqué, but still marketable.
“We took traditional fabrics and manipulated them in ways that aren’t traditional,” she says. The collection is inspired by Native culture and consists of traditional dress tops and pants with non-traditional accessories.
While a maroon loincloth isn’t something most guys would wear, Amber Andrushko, another third-year designer, is convinced that gay guys are more experimental with their clothing. “Gay men’s [acceptance of new fashion ideas] is what pushes men’s fashion forward,” she says.
But Kelly says men will probably always be more conservative than woman. “It’s just their nature.”
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