Updated July 2021
He is a snarky-cool, guy next door, living on the edge ethereal man with devastatingly handsome features. This modern man is styled somewhere between Zuckerberg, Will Smith, and Daniel Craig. Admittedly, therein lies some embellishment, well maybe a lot. But, along this persona spectrum is the model of modern men’s style, an essence of the character, attitude, and qualities to which many men aspire. It is safe to say, it is about appreciating what men like these embody – a style as endearing, as it is emblematic in simplicity.
Man 2.1
What if your style carried more punch than its price tag? What if style was a lulling voice, a subliminal expression of an individual? What would your style say? What would your man’s style say? It is arguable, that today’s men are a refined and centred version of their twentieth-century selves. This idea is advocated in the pages of women’s glossies. The man ascending the escalator at 42nd Street–Bryant Park or Shoreditch Station, East London donning high-tops, skinny jeans, embellished with a cardigan, and may be sporting a beard is Man 2.1. He changes the oil in the car; fixes the blocked drains; assembles an outfit of pastels and prints; and grinds Blue Mountain coffee beans, while formatting your desktop.
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Man in the mirror
Over the last generation, fashion icons have come and gone. For example, Michael Jackson’s notable individuality made a loud and clear proclamation and contributed to cementing his status as a legend. His unapologetic, brazen style and presence, and seemingly reckless abandonment of the predictability of fashion canons, gave permission to the world to take chances and wear a leather leotard, once in a while. Jackson’s self-expression was a fine blend of substance and form, talent and vision. It was a blurring of boundaries that challenged the values of The Man in the Mirror that men should no longer linger in the roles of just father, brother, friend, or chummy uncle – the strong, silent misunderstood type, with an uncomplicated, comfortable style.
Modern men’s style, an act of expression
The model of modern men’s style is an act of expression envisioned in detail – this shirt; those shoes; and that watch. Some attribute the idea of men as less fashion-conscious than their gender opposite to the roles and responsibilities traditionally assigned by culture, community, and society. It is fair to say that a man’s style was often a learned behavior – mom bought the clothes, and dad, if present, was indifferent with priorities to protect and provide. To imagine daddy teaching his son to colour-block and have fun with funky patterned socks would be visualizing life on another planet. Granted, there are those whose refined sense of style is like a family inheritance. On the few occasions I was entrusted into the care of my father there was never a crash course in tying the perfect double Windsor knot, but more an ordeal of a 7-year-old figuring out how to avoid the grease in the mechanic’s shop. These men were seen as survivors of wars and economic uncertainty, and some only just succeeded in surviving the 1980s. Understanding or even imbuing your son with confidence, and individuality through a sense of style and fashion was never a priority, and certainly not an expectation.
Men’s style universal lookbook
By the 1990s, the emergence of the ubersexual was apparent as men increasingly spent more and more hours preening and pampering, buffing and waxing, and experimenting with products – the cosmetic industry’s agents of change. This paradigm shift was simultaneous to the lifestyle drift of lads investing more of their income in clothes and accessories as they genuflected to the gods of designer labels.
The jury is still out on the key drivers behind this metamorphism, but perhaps there has always been a stylish man deep in all men, awaiting valediction. In the kingdom of stars, there were always icons that provided prodigious style references in the ebb and flow between progress and repetition. Fred Astaire, Sydney Poitier, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Robert Redford, and James Dean all attributed to the universal lookbook of the model of modern men’s style. These greats gave master classes of style in the execution of their craft and talents.
Man Next Door Steps Forth
Modern man continues to evolve. Today he is versatile, open, and coordinated. He is a professional family man, with a dynamic lifestyle and ambition. His sartorial signature is the idea that he is present in the decisions on how he is dressed. He is knowledgeable, yet the labels mean nothing if he is not comfortable with what he wears. A stark juxtaposition of the modern women who would lose a toe rather than wear a more comfortable, no, a “sensible” pair of shoes. It is not to say men never had an interest in fashion, the days of the dandies are evidence of that, but trends have once again reached that point of the cycle where the average man’s expression of style is the norm, not the exception. Fingers are no longer pointing as laughter is stifled in mocking judgments as the man next door steps forth carrying his Hermes Cabavertige 30 pouch.
The modern man’s rapport with fashion is a kind of zone of comfort. He exudes self-awareness and gleams pleasure from a look that suggests a stylish assurance. Fashion houses have diversified by presenting coed collections or introducing new lines devoted to menswear. The interests and tastes of men have translated into cultured, high-quality apparel. Ermenegildo Zegna, Paul Smith, Dries Van Noten and emerging designers like U.Mi-1 each have different perspectives of the model of modern men’s style, yet the golden thread connecting these labels is an ability to produce garments and accessories tailored to fit closer to day to day lifestyles of men while expressing softer values of masculinity. So even when the man next door is not snarky-cool or living on the edge, and the features are less than devastatingly handsome, his sense of style and self-expression may yet render him with sex appeal that carries more punch than a high-end price tag.
