Asian men are the new Black (men)
Feb 9th, 2012 by MrLuxuryFashionGuru
In an interview published in the November 2011 issue of PRESTIGE magazine (Hong Kong), Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were in China, and revealed that they had visited China for the first time in 2010. A few short months later, the Dolce & Gabbana FW 2012/13 menswear runway show on 14 January 2012 showed the striking effects of that trip’s influence. Not in the clothes, which were molto Italiano, baroque and a touch costume-y, with Pavarotti-inspired curled hair (matching Pavarotti on the soundtrack) and lots of brocade and velvet, but rather with the models themselves. Out of 74 outfits shown, 9 were worn by Chinese-looking models. Meanwhile, there was just a single black model in the show, given the next-to-last outfit in the presentation. (After the jump: See pictures from the show)
At other luxury menswear designer runway presentations the trend continued….
Anyone who has watched the runways for more than a couple of seasons will know that model-selection is largely fad-driven, and somewhat cyclical (as with most of fashion, these days) – remember the all-Asian model lineup at Riccardo Tisci’s haute couture presentation for Givenchy last season? Or the somewhat bizarre applause given the group of black girls that closed the Lanvin womenswear show last Fall/Winter (an incident that drew ire from Robin Givhan at New York Magazine)? But menswear is usually less capricious about these things. For the last decade or so, you could relaibly expect to spot Philip Huang, and maybe Simon Tham or some other half-Asian model on just about every runway, along with 2-3 other “ethnic” models. The number of Asian male models would be equal to, or less than the number of black male models. Some, if not many, runways would have no visible Asian presence at all.
Lately, however, it has become more common to see the Asian male models outnumber the black ones in a show, which is an interesting reversal from the last few years.
Dolce & Gabbana, FW2012:
It’s usually felt to me that menswear runways are a little about tokenism, a little about global ideals of male beauty, and a little about what sells and where it’s selling to. When Ermenegildo Zegna commemorated their 20th China anniversary last year, they put on a do-over of their FW2011/12 menswear show, but with grander staging, and many more Asian models than the original show. But if the rise of the Asian luxury fashion consumer were the main driver, then there should have been many more Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese male models on the runways when those markets established themselves as the #1 markets for luxury goods in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. So it’s probably not just about pandering to customers. (Although sometimes it is definitely about pandering to Asian customers, like the unlovingly photographed Godfrey Gao fronting last year’s Louis Vuitton ad campaign, or the various hideous dragon-emblazoned “special edition” bags and t-shirts released by the likes of Gucci, Prada, Coach and others.)
So maybe it goes deeper than commercial considerations, and more fundamentally to whether Asian male beauty is considered comparably desireable, universalized and acceptable in “core” markets in Europe and the US, and just as importantly in Asian markets as well. After all, it wasn’t very long ago that fashion magazines in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia had barely any Asian models (or at least not as many as might be expected). Again, recall the controversy when Vogue India launched in 2007 with blonde, blue-eyed Australian Gemma Ward front and centre on the inaugural cover (even though she shared the main cover with two Bollywood actresses and the inside expanded cover with another 3 Indian women).
Furthermore, we are already in a world where the cliches and archetypes of Asian female beauty (the doe eyes, the porcelain or olive or tan skin, the dark hair) have already long been exoticised, established and accepted. And then naturally these cliches and archetypes have been rejected, subverted, and sublimated to become more universal and trope-less. For evidence, see i-D Magazine‘s China issue this month, with 12 different Chinese cover models – I was half expecting them to all look sort of similar, with porcelain skin and doe-eyes, but was pleasantly surprised to see what I thought was a great variety of looks. (To be fair, at least one blogger has complained bitterly that the covers are “absolutely appalling, one after another succeeded in portraying Chinese women as backwards, tribal, cavewoman, prehistoric, rural, squinty eye aliens”). Look and judge for yourself here.
In contrast, what exactly are the cliches and archetypes of Asian male beauty? Ask me a few years ago and I’m not sure I could have told you. In some ways we seem to have skipped that step entirely, which feels enlightened and preferable. I thought one of the important achievements of the Dolce & Gabbana show was the variety of the Asian models, in terms of build and overall look. This was also something that could be seen in the Dolce & Gabbana PRESTIGE magazine cover and spread. If this is a sign that the average fashion-conscious person is moving successfully towards a diversified view of Asian male beauty, that’s something to celebrate.
What do you think? Comments, emails and re-tweets welcome: Mr@MrLuxuryFashionGuru.com
xoxo,
MrLuxuryFashionGuru___
Images below from style.com, i-D Magazine:
Dolce & Gabbana menswear FW 2012/13 (presented Jan 2012)
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i-D Magazine covers, Feb 2012 issue:
may i know these male models name which is above plese…..