November 23, 2023 |
Welcome to the world of men’s couture. A burgeoning part of the upper echelons of the fashion world for many years, it’s a movement that’s gathered force among a band of men who have the money for a bespoke Brioni suit, no doubt, but would rather opt for something more singular and expressive. Why let the ladies have all the fun?
The spark that ignited Dolce & Gabbana’s decision to venture into the world of men’s couture was, true to form, infused with a distinctly Italianate flavour and a heady dose of fabulousness. The story starts with a reproduction of a Canaletto capturing the Grand Canal that was printed and embroidered onto a sumptuous gown at the duo’s Alta Moda women’s couture showcase in Venice in 2013. The gown was promptly spirited away into the highfalutin’ wardrobe of one of the 0.001 per cent who attend these otherworldly occasions, but shortly after its catwalk debut a male client called. Could the festive scene be recreated on an evening jacket, as a one-off for him, he wondered. Alas, it only had the rights to use the image once. No matter, he told the brand. He owned the Canaletto in question, one of a dozen the painter did of the Venetian canal, and authorised its use in whatever fantastical clothes he damn well liked. Where there’s a will, a Canaletto and several hundreds of thousands of dollars, there’s a way.
“It’s about an experience, not just about viewing a product,” says Domenico Dolce. “And men are more bold in how they dress [now]. They want clothes that are special that [they can] work into every part of their lives,” says the designer, who is keen to point out the serious tailoring clout alongside the more outré pieces (the house even has an in-house gemologist to sew precious stones into the garments). Dolce men’s couture, Alta Sartoria, now forms a crucial part of the opulent, diamonds-in-the-morning couture showcase that the brand sprinkles across different locations across the world, inviting celebrities and high-net- worth customers to spend six and seven figures on some of the most opulent clothes created. And the men are as avid as the women.
It’s part of a new men’s style landscape where the concept of couture for men has been flourishing in recent years. In 2021, Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino introduced an offering for men within his couture showcase, sending a series of fluid, soft-fit silken capes and coats with cascades of florals and delicate latticework on suiting. At Fendi, Kim Jones added menswear to his first couture show via rigorously tailored suits with fluted sleeves, a blending of masculine and feminine codes, as well as digital-print organza suits and sweeping capes (the latter’s A Thing in men’s haute couture; that sense of grandeur works so well in this peacocking realm).
Jones is a particular case in point in pushing this new frontier in the most fantastical realm of men’s dressing. Since taking the reins at Dior, which is owned, like Fendi, by LVMH, he’s steadfastly mined the artisanal skill of the house’s couture offering, adding one-off pieces to its menswear line-up that employ just as much craft and flourish as anything its women’s couture arm might offer: embroidery, 3D florals crafted by Paris specialist Maison Lemarié and the techniques of the flou atelier – traditionally the preserve of women’s fashion – employed in the men’s collections.
“Dior has always been about a certain romanticism and artistry, and I think today we expect that in men’s fashion, too. The tailoring studio has always been focused on craft excellence, and it’s been fascinating for me as a designer to evolve what we can do in terms of inventiveness for men. Whether that’s gold macramé across suiting in Los Angeles or a constellation of stardust gems on gauzy sportswear tops, Dior men’s fashion is couture in everything but name,” says Jones.
It’s a sentiment that follows through in the collections of John Galliano at Maison Margiela Artisanal, where the designer creates menswear that combines his left-of-centre theatricality with exceptional craft, describing the decision to launch a couture line for men in 2018 as “the highest form of dressmaking, but for men”. Bias-cut silk shirts for men promptly followed, things of absolute beauty.
Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe collections are one-off moments in menswear, even if the designer doesn’t strictly class the garments as couture. They’re anything but everyday: coats and shoes bristle with grass, digital screens appear across coats and sculptural forms that mimic the extravagant experimentation of Cristobal Balenciaga.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that couture for men has been on the ascent for a while, as menswear has become more experimental and agenda-pushing than ever in recent years. The red carpet’s played a key part in this. From the Oscars to the Met Gala, men are more curious than ever about stepping out of the standard, polite tuxedo and into something more individual. Take Harry Styles in his Swarovski-encrusted Egonlab jumpsuit at the Grammys or Lil Nas X in Versace Day-Glo bondage straps at the Met.
Of course, the upper echelons of men’s dressing has always been preoccupied with the one-off and rarefied thanks to the world of bespoke tailoring, so having something created especially for you isn’t that revolutionary a concept. Time was when – for men of a certain social strata – one’s sartorial journey began with an introduction to a tailor on Savile Row, which until the 1970s was as closed-doors as the most clandestine secret societies, usually thanks to this father and that father, introduced by his father, and so on.
Bespoke is still an aspirational part of that world: men want to have a suit crafted using cuts, fabrics and details that are entirely their own. And so men’s couture is a natural evolution of the bespoke arena. In fact, male couture has existed as an entity before it was strictly called as such.
Take, for example, the 1865 creation of the evening suit as we know it. Prince Edward VII had been touring in the United States and was so inspired by the black tie at the ritzy Tuxedo Park, a country club in upstate New York, that he ordered his Savile Row tailor Henry Poole to recreate it. Black tie as we know it was born. There are countless examples throughout history of notable figures crafting custom-made designs that become the mainstay, such as Charles II creating the lounge suit for himself in the 17th century, so in a sense, a singular item for men was what prompted seismic shifts in menswear.
Of course, haute couture by the likes of Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino is an altogether more sumptuous and commercially minded approach. We see gender fluidity in silk capes, cuts so precise and so impressive in their ability to manipulate the frame that they seem to be works of wizardry and – certainly at Dolce & Gabbana – some of the richest, most heavily jewel-encrusted, embroidered works of wonder I have ever laid eyes on.
That blurring of gender is significant. At a time when we’re more inclusive than ever, men’s couture, with its feminised codes, thanks to the use of precious fabrics, flou techniques and embroidery, has followed a societal shift. Male power and influence used to be signified by a bespoke pinstripe suit, a Turnbull & Asser shirt and a Rolex. Today, it’s how ornate your Valentino silks are.
Historically, male peacockery of this ilk was part of aristocratic society’s dress codes and mores – the court of Louis XIV, the finery of Beau Brummell. The Renaissance paintings of the Medici era are full of men in romantic ruffles, coral velvets and twinkling jewels. It wasn’t until the uniformity of the Victorian era that menswear dimmed its light to varying wattage. This new guard of men’s couture is a glorious revival of celebrating finery in men’s dressing. But who are the 21st-century peacocks that wear it now?
The first rule of men’s couture club, of course, is that you don’t talk about men’s couture club. Clients are famously discreet, but on the occasions I’ve been up close and personal with the high-net-worthers who flock to couture showcases, the diversity has been staggering.
There was the Lagos prince who wanted to look more regal than anyone else in his circle and had the seats on his private jet adapted to accommodate his haul from a certain men’s couture show. There was the Floridian businessman of a certain age who, having retired and turned his back on captain of industry suits, wanted something more expressive in his older years: bejewelled kaftans after the blandness of decades of wearing pinstripe suits.
An LA superstar plastic surgeon once told me that the networking opportunities at a men’s couture show were worth the cost of a few six-figure suits alone; all of the world’s richest gents, together in one place, like Davos sprinkled with diamond Cartier watches. Of course, the wives who order couture play a part. One Swiss socialite took the sting out of the total cost of her couture orders by adding a few dinner jackets for ’im indoors, who was picking up the bill.
Of course, elite male dress codes will always have their place – the black tie formal, the morning suit – but the rise of men’s couture is a long overdue dose of fantastical craft, whimsy and, somewhat more emotively, pure joy in the world of men’s fashion. In a sea of standard black single-breasted jackets, be the guy in the crystal-sprinkled robe.
Photography courtesy of Maison Margiela, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, Fendi, Loewe and Dior. Taken from Issue 58 of 10 Men – ELEGANCE, GRACE, BEAUTY – out NOW. Purchase here.
