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Abstract
This article addresses the shifting dynamics in sartorial culture that have contributed to constructions of masculinity in the modern period and beyond. Specifically, it examines a dominance exerted by the ubiquitous tailored suit—documenting the garment’s emblematic role in geo-political contexts and its appearance in fashion’s representational culture. The initial section provides a historical overview of the suit’s development in the United Kingdom into a “barometer” of power relationships within the commercial and colonial arenas. The discussion goes on to consider Japan’s adoption of Western-style apparel as a pivotal moment in a project of modernity undertaken during a period of socio-political upheaval in the late nineteenth century. The article then addresses the visual renegotiations of traditional understandings of masculinity conducted in certain fashion periodicals during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The conclusion suggests that these two seemingly separate strands involving the politics and poetics of sartorial culture—a paradigm shift in dress practice experienced by Japan nearly a century and a half ago, and the more recent valorization of Japanese-designed menswear by the British fashion media—have intertwined in “re-tailoring” the suit for consumption within an expanded range of sartorial constituencies in the United Kingdom.
Notes
1. The phrase appears in the preface to William Blake’s Milton: a Poem published in 1808, but is better known from the 1916 hymn Jerusalem by William Parry.
2. Here Flügel—a founder member of the Men’s Dress Reform Party established in 1929—seems to be channeling William Morris’ exhortation to have nothing in one’s house that was not either believed to be beautiful or known to be useful.
3. Abbreviation of the term demobilization—release from National Service in the United Kingdom’s armed forces.
4. To this end a number of fact-finding missions were dispatched around the globe. A participant in the first was Fukuzawa Yukichi, who published his observations in a document entitled Seiyō Ishokujū (Western clothing, food and housing) in 1867.
5. Bigot frequently portrayed participants in social events held at the renowned Rokumeikan hall, such as the ministers of state in the Ito government who became known as “the dancing cabinet.”
6. Japanese names are rendered in the traditional manner of family followed by given name. Macrons are used to indicate a long vowel—thus Yōji is preferred to Yohji.
7. Reported by Hilary DeVries in Christian Science Monitor December 15, 1983. Accessed 30 July, 2015. http://www.csmonitor.com/1983/1215/121510.html.
8. In the 100th issue of The Face, editor Dylan Jones placed Japan second to his own magazine in a list celebrating the greatest inventions of the 1980s.
9. In a period when divorces were only granted on grounds of unfaithfulness and incontrovertible evidence was required, a common ploy was to hire an individual to stand in as the wife’s “lover.” In an arranged assignation the “correspondent” in the case would place his distinctive coffee-and-cream leather brogues outside the hotel room (as if for collection by house-keeping), indicating to the private detective which door to burst through in order to obtain the incriminating photograph.
10. August 12th is traditionally the opening day of the United Kingdom’s game-bird shooting season.
11. No doubt Nixon distils this idea in part from the titles of certain fashion spreads. However, the jacket featured in “Roman Holiday” is by Yamamoto Yōji, and the spread has no obvious connection with the Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn vehicle.
12. The 270-minute 1984 epic directed by Sergio Leone depicted the experiences of the Jewish-American criminal classes.
13. In, for example, Esquire, December 2005, p. 188 and Mayfair Times, June 2006, p. 27.
14. The garment was individually numbered, certified, boxed and available to the discerning consumer at around £1,000 per pair.
15. http://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-fagan/2013/11/23-confessions-of-a-former-abercrombie-and-fitch-employee/; .http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377699/Abercrombie--Fitch-face-legal-action-France-employing-good-looking-staff-flagship-Paris-store.html; http://www.fashionunited.co.uk/fashion-news/design/abercrombie-kids-lands-in-the-uk-with-debut-store-opening-2014082822198 [all accessed January 1, 2015].
16. George Harrison was the exception, choosing to wear an all-denim outfit.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nicolas Cambridge
After graduating with a first degree in fashion, Nicolas Cambridge spent an extended period in Japan, working as a designer-maker while studying the martial art of kendō (lit. the way of the sword). His experiences in Japan informed his doctoral studies undertaken at the London College of Fashion. He is currently a Lecturer in Fashion Marketing at London Metropolitan University