Men's trends in fashion can be just as exciting and daring as women's but why aren't there more fashionable men around? Designers both international and local have tried to revolutionize men's fashion in recent years. Unlike women though who have ages ago adapted the long-sleeved shirt and pants and labeled it androgyny, men can't wear skirts and call it the same - unless they are Scottish in their kilts... which is really more cultural than sartorial.
In the local scene specially, men are stuck in a certain look: jeans, t-shirt and sneakers. Plain as bare can be, comfortable at best. The biggest, most recent of men's trends that many local guys welcomed with open arms are slim pants and the Muslim shamag scarf. When comfort is the biggest argument you can come up with in defense of the jeans/t-shirt/sneakers dressing trinity, particularly in all-year-round warm Manila, then why don't more men wear loose linen pants instead of the denim slim pants that cling to the legs so tight it practically prevents air circulation? In the same way, why has the shamag scarf become the poor man's fashion statement? Forget that our country is not blessed with winter (or is blessed with no winter depending on how you see it). Guys from call centers - with more valid reason in their high A/C offices in the graveyard shift - to street vendors happily threw the scarf around their necks despite contradictory religious persuasions.
It is a good development, come to think of it, that men have started getting out of the box to look more stylish. Women sacrifice for fashion so why can't men? Is it a prelude then to men taking up another rather feminine staple, namely, jewelry?
When you look around you will see a lot of guys do accessorize. The leather cord necklace with a single pendant (mostly looking like some tribal talisman) and the Buddha bead bracelet are the most common accessories guys have taken a liking to. For the younger, edgier set, there's the chain dangling from their jeans' pocket. However, these are rather nondescript not unlike, say, a girl's pair of stud earrings. What if there is some other piece of accessory that trendsetters are proclaming as the new in thing for men? Do I dare say what it is? Alright then, it's men's brooch. Yes, you read that right.
Starting from Gucci's Fall/Winter '08 collection to Lou Dalton's '09/10, men's brooches are slowly making a comeback. We here in the Philippines dont' even know they were ever a part of men's trends before. Not if you count the smiley or peace sign badge pin as serious accessory anyway. As part of the Cool Britannia revival, these brooches borrow from traditional British elements. They are very vintage Anglo-Saxon with old world motifs like stag heads which match well with another men's trend, the military jacket.
How do you best interpret this trend? By wearing it on a jacket, one piece or, on more daring days, a group of maybe three in various sizes makes a discreet but strong impact. Once you pin it on your jacket, you can hardly feel you are actually wearing it so you feel less conscious about it. Keep the rest of your accessories in line with this focal motif or better yet, dont wear any other at all. Below are a few inspirations that you can look at to guide you.
It might take sometime before the local fashion scene catches up on this trend. If it does make it to Philippine shore, it still has to transcend local men's aversion to accessorizing. Given the inherent masculinity of the design of these brooches and coupled by its historical influence, though, you can be certain you will not be labeled as belonging to a sub-culture you do not wish to be identified with. Who says only they can be fearless when it comes to being stylish? A true man is someone who is brave enough to take on, chest first, men's trends.
