CITY Issue 57

CITY LIFE / IN ROGUE SLIM PICKINGS Drawing inspiration from the likes of Beau Brummell and Johnny Rotten, menswear designers this season are dressing gents in the skinny pants their ladies so adore. What then, Elyssa Dimant asks, are the girls doing in those blooming slacks? A er the death of Yves Saint Laurent last month, I couldn’t help but wax poetic. I badge ed whoeve would listen with eﬂections on Mond ian, Picasso, and Matisse, whose wo k inspi ed those b illiant ves collections f om the Sixties and Seventies. Th ough all of my ado ing, obsessive chatte , howeve , I painted one pictu e ove and ove again: In , an and ogynous beauty, both auste ely mode n and coolly of-the-moment, g aced fashion pages eve ywhe e th ough the siniste lens of Helmut Newton. She was wea ing an ensemble that would come to embody the signiﬁcance of the coutu e pant fo eve mo e. s he lithe f ame c awls ac oss a da k cobblestone alley, and a ciga ette dangles f om he ﬁ nge s, two wo ds escape to ﬁ nd thei way to you ea s: Le Smo in . This moment b oadened ou options. Su e, pants had existed befo e, but ves’s Le Smo in upped the ante. nd as my eyes focus on this sp ing’s p esentations, I ealize it’s happening again. Fo the ﬁ st time since that iconic tu n at coutu e bifu cation, the pant stands alone to command ou attention. With that in mind, he e’s the skinny. Lately (okay, fo a million yea s now), us ladies have been wea ing impossibly na ow t ouse s and leggings of eve y possible colo , opacity, and, thanks to me ican ppa el, textu e. But while we have all spotted the occasional skinny-jean boy, menswea as a whole had not, befo e the Sp ing eady-to-wea season, fully e-emb aced the itty-bitty legged pant. nd I say e-emb aced because men had those skinny pants ﬁ st. Napoleon’s paintedon b eeches, cut with an impossibly la ge c otch, cha med Josephine, not to mention F ance. Beau B ummell and the est of King Geo ge’s ci cle st olled thei ﬁtted t ouse s and g aceful c avates a ound Regency England. John Lennon’s tight, tape ed pants, mi o ed by the est of The Beatles’ wa d obes, might have wa anted that incessant sc eaming on The Ed Sullivan Sho in . Even Sid Vicious identiﬁed with the “toit” pant — he and Johnny Rotten ocked Vivien Westwood’s Bondage design long befo e Misﬁt, J B and, and cne gave us skinny jeans to wea with ou To y Bu ch ﬂats. This sp ing, ocke Billy Joel’s ly ics ing t ue: “ ou could eally be a Beau B ummell, baby, if you just give it half a chance.” t the Bu be y men’s collection, Ch istophe Bailey oﬀe ed up countless va iations of snugly ﬁt slacks, and one pai ed app op iately with a th centu y–style f ock coat in metallic gold leathe . Bailey’s most compelling design seemed inte p eted f om the Indian dhoti cut, with a slightly d opped c otch, but the leg was so WHETHER BREECHES, BONDAGE, OR DHOTI, THIS SEASON'S MALE TROUSER IS SKINNY, SKINNY, SKINNY. AND IT'S NOT JUST A PANT, IT'S AN ATTITUDE. ///// / / / / / / / / / / / / / / taut that the model seemed to have mo e in common with John Lydon in Bondage than a Bengali. Ove all, the looks seemed est ained, feminine even. t Comme des Ga çons, the aesthetic was even mo e shelte ed — lite ally — with each jacket and sweate ma ched in t iplicate down the unway. The eﬀect was a so t of timid pa anoia; the laye ing of these luxe jacqua ds and knits oﬀe ed a gentle, though pe sistent, a mo . nd each ensemble also featu ed a quiet pai of na ow schoolboy’s sho ts that seemed, especially with the ﬂamboyant t iplicate p esentation, to evive the knicke s of Osca Wilde. Whethe b eeches, Bondage, o dhoti, this season’s male t ouse is skinny, skinny, skinny. nd it’s not just a pant, it’s an attitude. K is Van ssche debuted at Dio Homme with a d amatic tableaux: packs of models stood in cluste s looking idle, supe ﬁcial, eplaying the a istoc atic vignettes of the th-centu y cou t o the B ummellian dandy club. The t ouse s of seve al of the looks we e tailo ed so tautly that the weave looked st ained, even ove a male model’s diminutive thigh. I wonde ed if the clothes we e meant fo anything beyond sitting p etty. Ou boys may be vogue-ing in dandy t ouse s, but womenswea has hea d an alte nate call of the pant. Whe e ou slacks a e typically feminine, ﬁtted, and cate ed to slende izing, this season’s waistlines, hips, and especially c otches weigh in at a volume that su passes even the codpieces of Hen y VIII. Fo sp ing, it’s the fai e sex that has the Napoleon Complex. t Philip Lim . , onlooke s glimpsed a mode n-day inca nation of the empe o ’s famous b eeches, full th ough the c otch to symbolize “powe ” and na owed f om above the knee fo easy iding. mani oﬀe ed men a pai of eggplant silk damask bottoms tape ed with f og closu es that we e wo thy of an O ientalist boudoi , but He mès played the exotic ca d with a g eate autho ity in womenswea : The F ench house walked a collection ife with low, swinging c otches cut in silk, pai ed by angula ly-tailo ed waistcoat and coat sets built fo a t ue West-meets-East colonize . Fashion histo ians have long compa ed a season’s t ends to the tu n of wo ld aﬀai s. So as Kathe ine Ha is steps back into the mainf ame in HBO’s Recount, Ch istine uinn ides out he ole as New o k City’s ﬁ st councilwoman, a Dunkin’ Donuts–hawking Rachel Ray has been identiﬁed as ou la gest te o ist th eat, and, of cou se, Hilla y Clinton eviews he tu n on the p esidential campaign t ail, is it any su p ise that the new pant exagge ates the feminine hip zone and hints at the indisputable p ominence and powe of women eve ywhe e? s we teete on political and economic tight opes, the season’s pant va iety ep esents both sides of the socioeconomic spect um: caution and coyness, as seen in the tailo ed skinnies of menswea , and a somewhat empty boastfulness on the pa t of the ballooning female hipline and ﬂy. In this, the etu n of the pant, it’s no su p ise that SL’s Stefano Pilati is leading the pack with sta k white Navy-inﬂuenced t ouse s, high-waisted, and full cut th ough the hip. ves would be p oud. ILLUSTRATION BY PATRICK MORGAN CITY TY 33

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 57

City Issue 57 Contents Letter from City Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment Temporary Contemporary In Rouge Fast Food The Amused Bouche How We Live/The Kitchen Taste Test Dessert Wine Going Local Expert Opinion Travel Employees Only Summer Showers Wild Things Be There at 10 P.M. Sharp If... Where To Buy It Icon

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