Pave: Dressing The New Hybrid Man

The masculine ideal is being completely modified. ... We are watching the birth of a hybrid man. ... He is looking for a more radical affirmation of who he is, and wants to test out all the barbarity of modern life.

Pierre Francois Le Louet,
managing director, Nelly Rodi,
French marketing and style consultants,
forecasting emasculation as the next hot fashion must-be
PARIS June 10, 2005 (AFP)

And how has M. Le Louet's prediction panned out? Personally we have not encountered his hybrid man, but we are not privy to fashion circles where such men are birthed. Judging by the next fall-winter fashions, though, hybrid man can stop raiding his sister's clothes closet.

UNREAL FASHIONS FOR UNREAL MEN
Predictive Couture Fires Up The Medial Orbitofrontal Cortex

Now, these fashions do not necessarily originate with France. But it is France -- and most particularly Paris -- that showcases and hypes and promotes them. Aside from their forced eccentricity, questionable comfort, and impractical wear, they simply look ridiculous. But France has forecast the hybrid man and now here he is.

Clockwise, from the top left:

1. The frail écolier in a tutu.
   Couturier: Prada [Photo source: 20minutes.com/Reuters]
   
2. La chapka with shag-rug throat eruption.
   Couturier: Alexander McQueen [Photo source: 20minutes.com/Reuters]
   
3. Billowing evaginated double-châle.
   Couturier: Gaspard Yurkievich [Photo source: 20minutes.com/Reuters]
   
4. Peek-a-boo supplemental collar.
   Couturier: None given [Photo source: 20minutes.com/Reuters]
   
5. The deranged cowboy look in mohair gilet.
   Couturier: Alexander McQueen [Photo source: 20minutes.com/SIPA]
   
6. Another chapka paired with exaggerated V-neck knit.
   Couturier: Ferragamo [Photo source: 20minutes.com/AFP]
   
7. Mink dinner jacket with white knit tam.
   Couturier: None given [Photo source: 20minutes.com/SIPA]

Of course, there is no accounting for taste in fashion. And if you are a grown man who still cherishes boyhood memories of secret dress-up in your mum's wardrobe -- or if you aspire to the silhouette of a twelve-year old girl -- well, something here might appeal.

PFFT (What is this?): On vous laisse juge -- | Rayonnement français 0