Menswear - Ask the audience

I love exciting menswear, I see it as an opportunity for design creativity as so little has been done in comparison to womens fashion. The main issue seems to be having a consumer group experimental enough to wear eyecatching designs as it is widely believed that men don't enjoy fashion as much as women, and are less likely to go out of their way to find/wear new design. This is even more widespread in Canberra, so I thought interviewing a fashion-forward male local for his views on this issue would be informative and interesting. He is the type of consumer I would target in my own menswear design practice. Introducing D:

How would you describe your style?
Borderline Personality / Disorder.
With the occasional nod to the mainstream.
[The sort of nod that says "Please don't hit me because it upsets & arouses you that I am awesome enough to wear gold go-go boots without shame"]

What do you think about the availability of mens fashion in Canberra?
Is men's fashion available in Canberra?
I know men's clothes are, but fashion?
Not so much.
I don't believe it's any particular fault of Canberras per se - we're just not big enough yet to support the sub/countercultures that usually push the fashion envelope to interesting places.
(Interesting places does NOT include any bar with complimentary nuts.)

Where do you normally shop?
50% OpShops.
30% Soho.
15% Felt.
(5% Supre. eek. Love their trakkydaks. Gayshame.)

Would you make things/have things made if you couldn't find it?
Constantly. If I want something specific, I make it myself.
Shopping is an adventure where if one manages to find something one likes = happy accident.
Expectations so often lead to disappoint, right?
Like, expecting not to be beaten on any particular evening because the gold go-go boots give everybody the impression I am a superhero of indeterminable strength. (and fabulosity.)

What direction do you think mens fashion is heading?
North by North West.
If North = homothrowback, and West = twentyfirstcenturybogan.
If we're talking local/australian ('mainstream') fashion - check out Oxford St, Sydney, or Commercial Road, Melbourne.
The young men lying facedown in a pool of their own broken noseblood - whatever they're wearing is what will be on the backs of their attackers in approx 2 years time.
This pleases me greatly - it used to be between 3 & 5 years.
But the hetero male appears to be catching up.
I can't wait until they start getting beaten themselves, because the gays are offended by their homoclothing.

Do you ever feel out of place because of your style?
I used to, quite a bit.
Then I found that great fashion goes hand in hand with great quantities of alcohol. If you get so blind that you can't see that you're out of place due to your threads; you become the hot tranny mess that everybody wants to take home with them at the end of the night. (Only to steal your clothing, sadly)

Are there items you own that you don't wear in canberra but would be happy to where elsewhere?
Almost anything I make myself. ie, most everything in my *floordrobe.




I'd like to finish by saying : Cut.
Men's fashion isn't about to go anywhere more interesting until the average fashion punter (read:designer) can take a few more risks with Cut.

A polo shirt's a polo shirt. Even if it is a beautiful shade of teal.

A polo shirt becomes something more when it has an asymmetrical collar which buttons down to the armpit, or has one tie-up sleeve, or is double lined + mock-hemmed.
Change. The. Cut. Already.


Cut.




*Floordrobe = As the name implies.