Chapter 19 Section 5 Today's Men's Fashion Market

In today's men's fashion industry, most of the brands that can be counted were born in this gay liberation movement.We see a commonality in these fashion giants: Menswear fashion brands have been dominated by gay designers for nearly 30 years.Christine from the past ?From Dior to Valentino, from Saint Laurent to today's D&G, and George who can influence people's aesthetics?Armani and the gorgeous Versace.None of them are gay. Why are they able to rise and gain public recognition.We believe that this group of great gay designers hit the collective personality of European and American society at that time.

Fashion design is the subjective expression of the designer's personality and thoughts, and the designer can subtly reveal his emotions in his works.The thinking of homosexuals has both the rationality of men and the delicate sensibility of women.The combination of these two perspectives endows many homosexuals with unique artistic gifts.It is precisely because of this talent that they have a better grasp of neutral and feminine beauty than men.Being able to express the long-suppressed desires of young people-capturing the collective personality.Thus, they created an era. In the 1970s and 1980s, the generation born after the war became middle-aged and elderly and became the main consumer group.This group of people who caused a sensation in the world when they were young are not willing to follow the rules when they are old.As a result, Armani, a men's wear brand with neutrality as its core design concept, has achieved unprecedented success.This not only made a world-renowned fashion brand, but also marked the first step for the menswear industry to deviate from the traditional masculine and mighty male image, and instead explore the gentle and delicate inner personality of men.For the next 30 years, he still occupied the catwalk.

The first is Armani, the super giant who took the lead in setting off a wave of neutralization in the men's clothing market. Regardless of whether you recognize Armani's neutral style clothing, he has been popular in Western society for nearly 30 years and has become more and more popular.Why can he lead the fashion and create these works that can sell well in Western society but shock the world?This has an inseparable connection with his personality. First of all, he is a homosexual, with both male and female characteristics, and can fully express the talent and pursuit of beauty of homosexuals through clothing.

In 1966, 32-year-old Armani and architect Sergio Galeotti fell in love. In 1970, the two co-founded the company. In 1972, Garaiotti sold his car, quit his job as an architect, and began to fully support Armani as his own brand, and he silently supported it behind.When Armani devoted himself to designing the "power suit", Galeotti would introduce big stars, win over dealers, and run the company, allowing Armani to concentrate on his own design. After 1980, Armani, who was thriving in his career, even appeared on the cover of "Time" magazine, and the scenery was infinite for a while.At this time, Armani lost his lover.Both of them were shareholders when the company was registered, but in fact Garaiotti was in charge of the company's internal and external affairs.Now Armani needs to face all this alone, and Armani has survived strongly, because there is everything about his lover Sergio Galeotti.He became stubborn and withdrawn. He didn't smoke or drink for more than 20 years, worked more than 12 hours a day, and only spoke Italian wherever he went. He inherited everything from Sergio Galeotti.The man's paranoia and persistence are fully revealed in him.

At the same time, Armani still maintains a more critical side than women: the distance between the underwear racks in the store, the tablecloths and decorations during the celebration, the way the models walk on the stage, the folds of the skirt on the catwalk, and the front and rear swings are all carefully designed by him. Yes, even the makeup of the models has to be done by hand.Sergio?Galeotti died, and Armani did not find any male companions.We can easily see his affection and persistence. Armani, who was the first to set off a wave of neutralization in the men's clothing market, is still the largest European designer brand in the United States today.

First look at his famous work "American Gigolo" in 1980.The "power suits" of the leading actor in the movie, the high-society cowherd "Richard Gere" are all made by Armani.From the stills at the time, it can be seen that the soft-lined "power suit" unreservedly showed the actor's casualness and coquettishness, which was completely different from the stereotyped men's clothing before.Armani uses a neutral style to express a man's heart. In Armani men's clothing, we have seen unprecedented liberation: soft lines, large lapels, completely subverting the previous standard mode of men's clothing.Maybe we won't feel weird when we see those suits today, because today's suits are still based on it.From this point, we can say that Armani has led the suit trend for at least 30 years.

Please imagine that in the 1940s and 1950s, men wore standard men's clothing with a limited number of buttons. In the 1960s and 1970s, they encountered the sexual liberation movement in the United States. The things worn by hippies and rock singers at that time are today. It seems that it is absolutely impossible to wear out.Armani was born under such a background of lack of success.This neutral thread has been carried forward in the West until today. At Armani's 2008 fashion show, the male model's deep V-neck had been opened to the belly, completely revealing the bust line; the lower body was wearing loose trousers like a skirt, and the lady's scarf and lady's T-shirt were draped on the male model very naturally. The concept of sexuality is very obvious.These clothes can even be worn directly by women.There are countless examples of this kind, and the annual fashion conference is a testament to the progress of the trend of neutralization. Designers are testing the bottom line of people's acceptance day by day.

The Milan fashion show in 2010 pushed this trend to the extreme. Male models have shown themselves in skirts without any hesitation, and even appeared in the shape of a male model holding a little boy by hand, which completely subverted the image of men.Androgyny is just like the highest state of expression in men's clothing. Unlike Armani's persistence, the stories of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berger can be described as ups and downs. In 1961 they co-founded the "Yves Saint Laurent Couture House". Saint Laurent and Pierre Berger broke up in 1976 because he fell in love with Jacques de Basche, the French aristocrat's male partner of the current Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld.Saint Laurent and Karl have been good friends since they were teenagers, but they broke up because of the man, and even Karl did not attend Saint Laurent's funeral.But that relationship didn't last long. At that time, Jacques was 23 years old and Saint Laurent was 37 years old.What he brought to Yves Saint Laurent were endless nightmares, and Jacques encouraged him to indulge in excessive drinking. In the end, Yves Saint Laurent was admitted to a mental hospital, almost ruining his career as a designer.It was Pierre Berger who accompanied him through his last days.Yves Saint Laurent does not have Armani's deep affection and single-mindedness, nor does he have Armani's dedication and dedication to his career. He is like a child who has no concept of life. He is simple, casual, sensitive and persistent.

Pierre Berger's passionate support for Yves Saint Laurent's career is unimaginable, even if Yves Saint Laurent made a new boyfriend.He was the only person who visited Saint Laurent when he suffered from depression. For decades, he took care of Saint Laurent's business. He played the same role as Armani's boyfriend, giving the genius Saint Laurent the freedom to create, not for the mundane. It's a waste of energy.After Yves Saint Laurent surrendered, he looked around for new design forces to maintain the brand's life.At the funeral, he held the coffin for Saint Laurent and vowed to continue the brand.Without Yves Saint Laurent, this brand would not be born, and without Pierre Berger, this brand would not be able to continue.The world of homosexuals is always full of miracles that ordinary people cannot understand.

Perhaps Saint Laurent's attitude towards love is not worth learning, but his contribution to clothing will always be remembered by everyone.Saint Laurent's main influence is in the design of women's clothing.Of course, his men's clothing is equally exciting, and it also captures the pulse of the times, that is-the neutralization of men's needs liberated in modern Western society. In 2004, Stefano Pilati (Sefario Pilati) became the design director of YSL, and it is no surprise that he is also gay.He said: "I grew up in a female world. I was in awe of the two dada and never rebelled against them. So I became gay, which helped me a lot, and gave me the opportunity to understand more deeply. A man's world." In June 2004, Stefano Palletti launched the first Yves Saint Laurent menswear.His men's clothing is mainly based on the "deep U-shaped" chest-wrapped style, pursuing an elegant and free and easy effect, which looks elegant and loose, and a little careless.Quite Armani style.

Other big-name men's clothing has also followed without lagging behind.At the same time as Armani, there was Versace, who was an openly gay man and had lived in Miami, a city that was more tolerant of homosexuality, for a long time.Because of the existence of Versace, he turned Miami into one of the centers of the American fashion industry.While both Versace and Armani hail from Italy, Versace has gone even further with unisex.The trademark of Medusa, the snake-haired witch, represents the philosophy of Versace: sexy patterns, enchanting styles, flamboyant temperament and colorful colors. Compared with the death of Armani's lover, the ups and downs of Saint Laurent, and the untimely death of Versace, Valentino is much happier. Endless professional and emotional support from my lover Giancarlo Giammetti for 50 years. Giancarlo Giammetti is the manager and protector of Valentino, and he is willing to live in the shadow of Valentino and contribute silently to it.He concentrates on taking care of the company's business up and down, so that Valentino can concentrate on his design. Their intimacy was on display during the making of the documentary "Valentino: The Last Emperor". Giancarlo Giammetti enthusiastically participates in post-production, so that the audience only sees the best side of the lover.Under the shadow of this good helper, Valentino gave full play to its meticulous pursuit of clothing.In Valentino's atelier, there are no sewing machines, and what you can see is that more than 120 female workers are sewing a dress by hand.Only Valentino, a designer with a perfect lover, can have the spare time to embellish the clothes complicatedly, and only Valentino can interpret the perfect clothes in such a luxurious way.His clothes don't ask for novelty, and his meticulousness in clothing is beyond imagination.His men's clothing, we will naturally associate them with nobility, elegance and fashion. Valentino's colors aren't as flashy as Versace's, but the cut is absolute perfection.Valentino carves every piece of clothing as a work of art.I am afraid that only the handmade work of 120 female workers in Canentino's studio can produce such a wonderful work of art.Although the model is thin but not sick, it feels healthy and thin.At the same time, it is also affected by the neutral wind, and the masculinity is slightly insufficient. We mentioned the women's clothing Prada in the world of men's clothing. There is a movie "The Devil Wears Prada" that perfectly interprets Prada's women's clothing. Among them, the heroine Meryl?Streep has one scene in a black evening gown to a benefit gala.It was specially designed by Valentino for her, although this is not men's clothing I still want to mention it.She can deduce such a perfect curve from a nearly 60-year-old woman, I believe no one can do it better. Dior has a longer history and has been a model of high-end women's clothing since its inception.Driven by the wave of neutralization, Dior also launched the sub-brand Dior Homme in the fall of 2001.Designer Hedi Slimane is also gay, and he and Chanel's chief designer KariLagerfeld have a confusing year-end friendship.When we talked about the example of Saint Laurent, we knew that Karl Lagerfeld was also gay, and was robbed of his male partner by Saint Laurent. Karl Lagerfeld lost 40kg in one year to wear Hedi's clothes.We don't know whether Karl lost weight for the clothes or for the designer of the clothes.However, after Hedi left Dior to switch to photography in 2007, Karl stopped wearing this brand, and Karl also started to hold a personal photo exhibition.Let's see what his clothes look like. Hedi has made waves in the fashion world with his alternative take on androgynous menswear.Although Armani's men's clothing is neutral, it is definitely a healthy neutral.Dior is completely different. First of all, it is to abandon the tall and masculine male models and look for boys with strong feminine characteristics.Coupled with his narrow fitted coats and slender trousers, the man has an extremely delicate appearance.The frail figure, melancholy eyes, and all skinny skin completely broke the image of a man.From 2001 to 2007, Hedi's Dior men's wear has almost become the men's wear indicator of the 21st century.It was also from then on that men's models began to be soft and skinny. If you think this is the limit of androgynous menswear, then you are wrong.None of them can compare to rising star Prada, and I haven't seen any more feminine menswear than Prada.It has gone far beyond the neutral, even beyond the circle created by Armani, becoming an alternative dancer. If readers dabble in fashion women's clothing, they must be familiar with Prada's women's clothing.That is a typical strong woman in the mall, without the slightest femininity.Of course, this is also the image of a woman she wants to create - strong.Prada's designer is different from the previous masters, she is the only woman.We have no way of knowing whether she is a lesbian, but we know that the men in her eyes are petite and charming, and they are accessories of women. After 1978, Miuccia Prada, the granddaughter of the founder of Prada, was in charge and served as the designer.She herself has a thorough feminist trend of thought, her style emphasizes "castrated patriarchy", and her men's clothing has also become a prisoner of strong feminism.The dark, naked and suit trousers of Prada men's clothing are undoubtedly the loyalists of Prada women's iron heels, satisfying their slavery to men. Can Prada lead another trend.We will wait and see!