Editor’s Note: Having displayed a degree of snark throughout my Ivy custodianship, I just wanted to reiterate, these are not random shots they are real questions – I just don’t get it.
GQ (which is almost out of the fashion business) ran this article about Paris’ Fashion Week.
I want to talk about the article sure, but first, a moment of silence for GQ which is almost out of the relevant fashion business. I remember my first GQ, it had a picture of Ronald Reagan in a brown suit and politics aside that was really the first time I got my head around the value of optics. He looked fantastic, strong, confident, smart. I wish they would go back to the clothes. At least Esquire, which has also detoured some from the sartorial, migrated to a focus on quality writing.
Anyway, and this is a serious question, what is the benefit to Jared Leto of this type of promotion? It isn’t to sell anything. No one in the real world could make it down a grocery aisle in any of this. It isn’t to promote a movie (btw he was FANTASTIC in the Gucci movie, he really is gifted). It doesn’t promote the band (Thirty Seconds To Mars’ song Kings And Queens is a vocal showcase for Leto, he can SING too). What is the gain? Does it lift his “brand?” No, no one says let’s cast him because he puts makeup on his tongue. What does it accomplish?
While we are at it, I don’t understand the purpose of haute couture to begin with. And this isn’t about dressing like me. Cowboys don’t dress like me, but you can live in the clothes they wear. This stuff isn’t wearable, it doesn’t inspire anything in any other genre. What is it’s commercial purpose?
Finally, scroll through the photos they offer. Denim is apparently back in, only David Beckham is in a suit, and Pharrell is at least smart enough to wear something you can walk in.
Tomorrow… SARAH!
Leto has a long history of wearing weird, gender-bendy clothes.
On another note, could you please post your correct email again? The one you posted before never made it to my contacts. I have some interesting for you.
something
Hi – JohnBurton@Ivy-StyleMediaGroup.com Looking forward!
I’ll dare to be the first. That literally made me queasy.
Ivy must truly be “anti-fashion”
Men, it seems, are the new women. Every week another must-have “it” item.
“Haute couture” is a term regulated by the French government. Only a handful of about six fashion houses can use the term.
Much like ivy style, haute couture, originated in the ornate salons of haute bourgeoisie and upper class Paris and was promoted by the media, fashion magazines like Vogue, and the French government.
Haute couture harkens to a time when women dressed like ladies, and men dressed like…men.
Lots of wider trouser legs in view, but nearly all of them are too long and puddle all over the wearers’ feet. Why?
Why? Because for 15 years people wore drain pipe trousers that ended above the ankles. When people turn on a fashion, they turn all the to the other extreme.
GQ photo of Ronald Reagan in a herringbone tweed jacket, chambray shirt, and knit tie:
https://media.gq.com/photos/5583e7783655c24c6c972539/master/w_800%2Cc_limit/copilot-style-photos-201404-1398688585211_Ronald-Reagan-Morning-Shot-516.jpg
A lot of people will say or do anything for attention.
I think high fashion is celebrated as wearable art that plays on, or against, the human form. It’s as pretentious an art scene as any, and it’s woven into cultural problems like body image issues and eating disorders, but some folks love it. And I don’t know how this works, but when someone like Jared Leto or a younger star shows up to events like this, they get paid somehow. There is a financial incentive beyond the self-marketing visibility. Don’t ask me how it works — I’ve no idea.
I admit I do not get out much these days, but the only folks in this article I had ever heard of were Eddie Redmayne, James Franco, David Beckham, and Mark Tuan @ Saint Laurent. No wait, scratch that last one, I was thinking of Mark Twain a/k/a Samuel Langhorne Clemons. –JHG
John: Regarding the dude with the red tongue, I was doing that when I was eight years old. You just go down to the picture show and buy a bag of Red Hots. You let them sit on your tongue for fifteen minutes and “Viola!” you have the prettiest red tongue in town. — JHG
Yes, Chris. It’s a desperate cry for attention. Acting out. Anti-social as hell. Self defeating. By this time tomorrow it will be forgotten…forsaken. Irrelevant. Sad circus clowns. At risk. Blah, blah, blah.
“Haute couture harkens to a time when women dressed like ladies, and men dressed like…men.”
Like adults.
The moto jackets weren’t bad.
This men-looking-like women thing is simple, really. Here goes: its about men looking like women.
Ivy and other classic styles allow men to look like men, as they should.
We are traveling headlong down a weird and dangerous path.
I pity the boys who must now grow up in this world of misplaced values, anything goes and dead traditions.
Its not cute. Its a disgusting death by a thousand cuts indoctrination.
I think Nevada is right. High fashion is analogous to contemporary art. In both fields, but especially in contemporary art, the guiding principles have been lost. The result is self-referencing inside jokes where everyone forgot the original meaning. The only defense against becoming the butt of the joke is to mock something before you are mocked.
High art and high fashion were once cults of beauty. They are now cynical cults of ugliness.
How do we get comments out of moderation?
Actually, I do that part. That’s… moderation. You can always email me at JohnBurton@Ivy-StyleMediaGroup.com if you have something you think is stuck in the pipeline.
City Journal has an interesting article detailing the demise of Esquire which has followed the same trajectory as GQ and Playboy.
https://www.city-journal.org/the-end-of-mens-magazines
Maybe not read the mag anymore. To each their own.
Dear God can you take that stupid face off this site…it is maddening…as are the “clothes”…
The gentlemen in the checkered outfit is none other than one Jaden Smith AKA Slapper Jr. 😂