“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Each season, Karl Lagerfeld does an amazing collection for Chanel that editors wait for with baited breath as the grand finale of Paris Fashion Week. Once again, he delivered the goods and the spectacle. For the last few seasons, he’s been throwing some men’s looks into the show as eye candy. Speaking of eye candy, seems like Karl is obsessed with model, Baptiste Giabiconi. Yes, he is a tasty morsel of sugary goodness, but this Fall ’10 collection has him dressed in all sorts of furry nonsense, and I am not loving his tragically fashionista hairdo. I remember the Eskimo… Read More »

Stephen Burrows’ collection was great. She showed this beautiful signature column gown that brought me back to 1977, when I first arrived on the scene. Stephen was my first introduction into the scene. My roommate Sal De Falco and he were dating, and I was immediately whooped up into the firestorm that was Stephen Burrows’ World. We were called Burrow-ettes. Stephen would stitch together colorful, little garments for us to wear to Studio 54 or Tea Dance in the Pines…before the muscle heads and crystal queens took it over. It was a fairy tale time in the fashion industry. New… Read More »

“It’s good to be the king.” So said Mel Brooks in History of the World, Part 1. The reason I bring this up is because the men’s collections for Fall ’10, between Milan and Paris and now in New York City, are really great…and very butch. So, my quote for this season is, “It’s not good to be the queen”. In what I am calling an immediate response to my Manzie Reports from last season, every designer on Earth quickly revisited their sketches for this season and chose to man up. Thank you all for taking note, but now what… Read More »

Yes, there is a definite shift in the air since Spring, when nelly, prissy, fembots ruled the men’s runways. There is a butcher tone overall, but Lord knows not exclusively, as that would render me out of business. Surprisingly, Junya Wantanabe, Viktor and Rolf, and even Gaspard Yurkievich all had smart showings. It’s not like I am disappointed that I can’t find what to poke fun at, I would frankly rather not have ever started this Manzie business. I am a bit Pollyanna in that I want every designer to do well. Rather than leave a hole for yet another… Read More »

Overall, the men’s collections in Milan are pretty great. Sifting through all the images to mine for Manzies was not quite as easy as last spring. Somehow I would like to go out on a limb and take some credit, that my Manzie Reports impacted some of the designers. Seems like many of them worked overtime to avoid making Manzie Faux Pas, for fear of being included in the Manzie Reports. What I can say about Fall 10 is that there’s much ado about nothing special, since quite a few collections played it really safe. Perhaps it is a no… Read More »

It has been a while since the last round of men’s shows where we first met The Manzie, which we sometimes refer to as “The Manz” or “La Manz”. You newcomers need to be brought up to speed. What is a Manzie? (pronounced man – zee), hence, What is a Manzie Report? At last season’s men’s fashion shows in Europe, the overarching trend was something that I hadn’t seen in quite some time, actually ever. I came up with the term Manzie to capture the moment. A Manzie is not a Dandy, nor is he a Pansy, hence the revised… Read More »

“Menswear should take cues from womenswear, and not just the other way around,” says Muccia Prada in BlackBook. Now, you all know how much I love to trash a good manzie (click to get official meaning). It has been eons since I did a session on that “look”, which confuses many of my readers, while providing many good laughs. “But, Muccia, what items in womenswear can men pull off without looking like big, nelly queens?”, I Mean…What!?! wants to know. Leggings for starters. Leggings have been on trend and a huge best-seller for the past few seasons. But on guys?… Read More »

Now we see that there is a global consciousness to dressing manzies. Sure, I mean…what?!? may have been the one to coin that phrase, but let’s face it… designers have been hell bent on feminizing men for centuries. Look no further than the French courtesans. As London Fashion Week wound down, it was not easy to find a lot of menswear designers until thanks to Zimbio, boy did I find a doozie. The show was called Man…which was to promote Topman. Let me say here that I use that term loosely because ain’t no man I know gonna wear this… Read More »

As I started reading Tim Blanks‘ review of the Thom Browne collection on men.style.com, I thought I must have landed in the Fashion Twilight Zone. Having read the Women’s Wear Daily review and judging for myself based on the images, I thought, “What is Tim drinking backstage…Thom Browne Kool-Aid?” There is little to say. WWD wrote, “The clothes were ridiculous.” Whereas Tim Blanks says things like, “Browne’s clothes felt refreshed, confident, and as upbeat as the soundtrack of Beatles songs.” Or how’s this, “He just loves polka dots and Darth Vader.” Fotz. You judge for yourself. This is a bi-polar… Read More »

Yesterday was uneventful as far as Manzies go. The women’s collections are in full bloom. Alexander Wang, Jason Wu, Charlotte Ronson, William Rast, Rag and Bone, these are the collections with all the heat. That said, there was little if anything interesting going on in menswear. And when I say uninteresting, I don’t lie. I am still trying to figure out why Lacoste does a fashion show. I’d imagine their retailers would buy that in the showroom, and clearly, if they were in the 21st century, with a basic collection like that, they could handle their seasonal order and reorder… Read More »