These 8 female designers are driving change in the male-dominated fashion industry

Designing for men: These 8 designers are driving change in the male-dominated fashion industry

Dieis a male-dominated business. Over 85 percent of graduates from the leading fashion schools are women, yet only around 14 percent of the 50 largestled by women. We still keep the store running.

For example, we give 226 percent more forout than the men. We manage retail spaces and design studios. But you rarely find us at the helm of a fashion house. When the luxury group Kering appointed Seán McGirr as Sarah Burton's successor at Alexander McQueen last year (and with him all six fashion houses ofwhitedirected by men), the female anger finally boiled over.

"I literally don't know a single woman of my generation who was even considered for a job like this," one designer snorted in a viral Instagram post. Over the decades, we've written it off as normal that male designers take their vision for granted can be implemented on women's bodies.

Creativity, culture and personal messages – that’s what shapes men’s fashion designers

But what actually happens when women design for men and the male body becomes their creative playground?Do men then become sex objects or projection surfaces for fantasies or political messages of all kinds? These questions are being asked by an exciting generation of peopleanswered those who have chosen the discipline of men's fashion. In doing so, they simply turn the tables - a rogue who thinks that this is self-defense against the patriarchy.

Of course, women have been designing for men for a long time. The FrenchwomanVéronique Nichanianfor example, has been quietly responsible for the Hermès men's collection for 36 years.Miucciahas been successfully selling her view of men since 1995,Isabel Marantsince 2018. However, these big names were probably primarily a commercial strategy.

Different atGrace Wales Bonner, which became known to the wider public through regular collaborations with Adidas. She initially studied “Womenswear” at Central Saint Martins College. When the now 32-year-old was supposed to realize a men's fashion project there, everything changed.

"It became much more personal and connected to the men in my life," she told British Vogue. “I realized that there is a responsibility to acknowledge Black male identity; the multitude of complexities, the diversity and the beauty that were not represented.”

In fact, in 2014, hip-hop-inspired streetwear was pretty much the only thing considered a Black influence in fashion. Gracecreated a world in which black poets, musicians and cultural theorists played the main roles, made films with Harley Weir in Senegal. And so focused the attention on a black male image, characterized by elegance and tailoring. She found her favorite model, Wilson Oryema, on the street and he became her muse: “We talked about how clothes make him feel, how something changes the way you move,” she says.

First insight: Female designers who design for men seem genuinely interested in what they actually want to wear.

Bianca Saunders, this year's winner of the British Fashion Council's £100,000 Fashion Fund, studied menswear at the Royal College of Art. For her 2017 graduate collection, she filmed and interviewed male friends in their homes. What Saunders learned influences her work to this day. “I watched how men moved in their clothes, so I incorporated that into my tailoring,” she says. And: “Then there is the whole issue. It must be active and functional. In women's fashion, you could get away with just looking good. That’s the difference between men and women.”

Second insight: Obviously, it's not just men who can benefit from the female perspective - we can learn from them too. Men are no less vain. But they are not easily seduced. You invest when the material and quality are good. When function meets good looks.

Sustainability and Gender Fluidity: The New Norms of Fashion

It is therefore no wonder that the designers who have their roots in men's fashion have long since also been selling to women - from Grace Wales Bonner toBethany Williams. The Isle of Man designer won the menswear fashion award for her fine, sportswear-inspired designs-Collections. This has long since become a whole world that combines activism and sustainability with high fashion and dresses men and women equally.

AlsoPriya Ahluwaliaworks withand is a big fan of. It almost seems as if there is simply less pressure in menswear to deliver a highly commercial product. Then suddenly sustainability works too. And is there more space for the perspective beyond the white privileged. Bianca Saunders' roots are Jamaican, as are her fathersMartine Roseand Wales Bonner; Ahluwalia has Nigerian and Indian roots, but their home is London. Funnily enough: the city of classic men's fashion par excellence.

And also the one that is much sung about but never really became mainstreamGender Fluiditysuddenly seems effortless. AsLabeled designs are not the focus of the young designers' work; rather, Grace Wales Bonner later designed specifically for women. But of course it is not forbidden - and has long been a given anyway - to have onefrom a men's collection to buy for yourself. The men's labels that are owned by women are simply less dogmatic. This means that they fit into a time in which young generations have grown up taking it for granted that they no longer have to conform to gender stereotypes.

Martine Rose, who founded her label in 2007, had her coming-of-age in the 1990s and was more repelled than inspired by the super-feminine women's fashion of the time. your style –and shirts with turned-up collars – she discovered while working at a shirt tailor. But because the androgynous look, from the trouser suit to the oversized shirt, is in theNowadays, things are taken for granted and the boundaries are fluid, so it makes sense to look for a field in which you can simply push the boundaries a little more.

Because even if men's fashion has its rules: within these codes you can simply be even wilder than in female ready-to-wear, where the audience ranges from underpants as the main item of clothing to tent-sized onesEverything has long been used to. All you have to do is look at a jacket or a men's shirt from Bianca Saunders, where the sleeves suddenly run in a sculptural curve, or men's Bermuda shorts that flow down the body thanks to a wave print. There's something else going on! So to answer the initial question about what the female gaze does to men's bodies: The man is not inand not converted into a fairytale prince, although of course nobody has anything against either.

Instead, he's simply given more complexity and personality than the handsome, tailored suit wearer from Savile Row ever had. One could even say: the man becomes a human being, with feelings and his own tastes. You're welcome, boys!