It ticks me off that women's fashion magazine's don't cover men's fashion in any depth. I understand why, but it still ticks me off. Rather than try to change the fashion mag industry, I just buy GQ. And it's a good thing, too! Because contrary to what the average person thinks, men's fashion has undergone a complete revolution in only the last 20 years, and I mean COMPLETE. 360 degrees. And the deeper story remains untold. It seems to me that everyone has been asleep at the switch. In my mind, this has been an epic battle on the order of what you might see in a scene from "The Lord of the Rings" or "The 300". The fashion industry played a huge role in a cultural revolution that is staggering in its sweeping implications and social impact.
When my husband and I were dating twenty years ago, everyone wore suits to work. Everyone. Men and women alike. Unless you were a creative at an ad agency and wore a black mock turtle neck every day, you wore a suit. And if you were the turtle neck guy, they shut you in a room, threw food at you once a day and never let you anywhere near a client. They only let you out when they heard your muffled cry, "I'm done with the layout, can I go home now?"
Five years ago, no one wore suits. Not a sole. Women were in dresses and skirts with boots, men were in casual shirts and khakis, and Friday was jeans day. Essentially, while no one was watching, young people took over. The guardians of the gates fell asleep and the agile and nubile scaled the walls and forced everyone to where Polos at knife point. It may actually have been a little more subtle, more like a Trojan horse ploy. I think the young people pretended to give up, making believe that they were acquiescing to the office politics and hierarchy, got everybody drunk (the booming economy helped with that part), and then they slowly but surely started coming to work in coordinated outfits more often, enlisting others as they went, until suddenly the young and hip made the elder statesmen, in their single-breasted, striped-tie uniforms, look dowdy and out of touch.
"Get thee to a Nordstrom's" came the new battle cry from the Board of Directors, "there cannot be a coup!" And so the elder statesmen addressed their style of dress lest they appeared to disenfranchise the minions. And without so much as an office memo to change the policy on dress code, it happened - a nationwide cultural revolution that never happened. I wonder if anyone will notice that the chariots are circling all the way 'round the track? Can you say, "sharp suits and funky socks" Johnny? Ted Baker ties are helping this new trend move along. And why do I know about this and no one else seems to? Because I buy a men's fashion magazine. There's no way you'd know this complete transformation in every industry across the country took place by looking at Vanity Fair or Vogue. You might have caught wind of it if you read Essence or InStyle, but you would really have to have been looking for it.
GQ has been shouting about the movement from frumpy to fashionable in the workplace at the top of it's pages' lungs for years and years, but, since dudes don't talk fashion, the entire leverage of the revolution was lost. Dear young gentlemen, you have the power to change more about the workplace than just the dress code! Use the power of fashion as you make everyone where suits again! And you old men with "Director" in your titles?? The British are coming! You can decide that red coats are "ok" with you, but you'd better watch out! This time around the price for your red coat may be changing that "Director" title to "Chief of reporting quarterly statements to the older dude in the corner office." The new "Red Coats" are more about egalitarianism and "callin' 'em like they sees 'em."
I'm so glad that the cultural revolution happened, but I am still shocked that Nancy Grace never got a hold of it like the hungry-dog-on-a-meaty-bone type of a reporter that she is. Only one magazine is still shouting a call to arms. Thank you GQ, I hear you loud and clear.
