So H&M does it once again! You will never know how this fast-fashion, value-for-money brand manages to get the best designers of the World create collections for them, but you will continue to look out for these surprises.
The Lanvin for H&M collection has the pizazz and sexiness of Lanvin, coupled with the fun and affordability of H&M. If you were smart enough, you would have queued up at the nearest H&M store to grab these limited edition pieces. But if you didn't make it on the opening day, go try your luck immediately. These are definitely pieces that you must have in your wardrobe. It's all about differentiating yourself from the crowd!
There is something called following the hip-hop style and wearing loose fitting clothes, but that definitely is not synonymous with wearing ill fitting clothes. Nothing is more disgusting than seeing a man who has his shirt shoulders half way down his elbows, his trousers long enough to sweep the streets he walks by and with a fork so loose that it could store a doubly extra large package. Being well dressed on the whole also includes wearing clothes that are of the right size, clothes that fit you well, clothes that look like they were stitched for your, though they necessarily need not be made to order.
In India, there is a reason why children are dressed in ill fitting clothes. Blame it on our Indian mothers who were born and brought up to think 10 years ahead of time. Walk into any mall, department store, the movies, restaurants etc and look around you. Children will mostly be dressed in sweaters that are two sizes too big, dresses that ideally should be knee length but are ankle length, shirt sleeves folded up three times, so that the hands don’t get hidden behind cloth and trousers that can last till the boy is twice his size. Courtesy, “Beta, take a size larger, chotta ho jayega” or “ek baar dhone se shrink ho jayega, ek size bara lelo.” So through his childhood, the Indian kid is forever wearing clothes that will be worn irrespective of how much he grows, because his mother has made a wise investment, not wanting her child to run out of clothes ever. I sometimes wonder if they even realise that the multi-print shirt that is in vogue today may not be so fashionable a few years from now, or if it ever struck them that there will always be clothes to buy, irrespective of whether there is a war on in some part of the world or if the American market is going through its biggest recession.
Okay, hypothetically let’s forget and forgive the rotund, curtain cloth wearing mothers who believe in squeezing out every inch of the toothpaste tube and using oil till the last drop is out from the bottle. But what is highly unforgivable is when you see a well turned out bride, looking all bright and well made up on the best day of her life standing next to a man dressed in a sack. God, did he get his suit tailored hoping that he will gain weight? Or was he going to gift this suit to his soon to be pregnant wife as maternity overalls? I recently came across Mr. Baggy Pants, a classic example of the problem of oversized clothes. While shopping with him I learnt that Mr. Baggy Pants insists on wearing denims that are two sizes too large on the waist. Now this can be a serious issue and I am just hoping that no strong gush of wind takes his denims away, considering they don’t hold on to him tight enough. But what makes me wonder is what is so large in there that he needs denims that are two sizes big. Or is it that he is a strong follower of the thought that you should give your gun a large space to relax? Agreed. But that large? Mr. Baggy Pants surprises me further. While buying sweaters, he insists on a size in which his sleeve ends beyond the tips of his fingers. Now, which sane man, even in his insanity would want to do something like that? Agreed that sweaters are meant for layering, but wool is stretchable to a point! You don’t need to leave an extra space underneath, hoping that someday you will fill it up with layers of clothes. Unless you’d want to look like a live hanger.
Mr. Baggy Pants has a reason why he wears loose clothes. He believes that they help him hide his fat. Now, this is a problem that comes with many Indian men—large beer bellies, excess weight accumulated over the years as a result of unhealthy eating and loads of couch surfing. But if you are one of those, just to let you know, the answer lies not in wearing ill fitting clothes and making you look like a fool, but in hitting the gym, trimming down, getting fit and then dressing to the part.
For many months, a huge billboard at Palladium said ‘Zara. Coming Soon’. The soon was a long wait, but it finally did come and yes, with a bang. It’s been one week since its launch and you can already see people wearing the Zara shirt you own. Is that a bad thing? Well, yes, maybe but when it’s Zara, who cares? This Spanish brand definitely knows how to keep you happy. With an excellent men’s collection in the Indian stores, men in the country definitely have another reason to celebrate. So if you’re feeling a little low on cash this month and yet want to gift yourself something extra smart, go grab the suede loafers from Zara. Not only will they give you a little thing to rejoice but also secretly satisfy your desire for the Tod’s ‘Gommini’.
Some reason for men to rejoice. Finally here is a brand with reasonably priced, beautifully designed manbags for those men who don't believe in the concept of carrying a laptop bag. In my opinion, with the laptops getting smaller and lighter, every man should just shift to these chic and elegant bags. Although just a test run of sorts, I'm sure there will be more to come from Lord K.
“Do you want men’s thongs?” asked the middle aged store-keeper in Bangalore’s Commercial Street. It took a while for me to understand what he was actually saying, and then later when it struck me I couldn’t digest two things. Firstly, this pot-bellied man sat in a large store selling all kinds of women’s underwear and weirdly enough women of all ages came to him and revealed the size of their assets. But what was more of an education for me was the fact that there were thongs made for men! It was the 60th anniversary of the bikini, and as an entertainment intern with a news channel, my senior wanted me to help her on a story on the evolution of the itsy-bitsy piece of cloth. Curious cat that I was, I asked him to show me some of them. Disgusting, ugly and unsightly is how I would describe them today. Not only were they an eye-sore, but looked so unattractive, that I refused to even touch them, failing to understand how on Earth could men wear them. That was my first encounter with men’s G-strings and thongs.
Over the years, having seen glimpses of men’s thongs more often, and having read articles on them, and having gotten myself deeper into men’s fashion, I have come to realise that thongs and G-strings are made for men as well. And though most of the others that I have seen around are better looking than the ones I first encountered, I still don’t understand why someone would wear them. What is so great of having a tiny piece of stretchy cloth, which is smaller than a baby’s handkerchief,holding up your wee-willy-winky, while the rest of your most private area is left to breathing fresh air? Not that fresh air is bad for you, but there is a limit to the extent of skimpiness that you can go to when it comes to underwear. And I am sure boxer wearers will more than just agree with me, especially since most boxer loving men feel that even the brief is a little too brief! Though that is not really true, I am not even touching the topic of whether you should go with the boxer or the brief, as this is an argument that has been going on for ages, causing the greatest rift between men at all times—a war that is bigger than any of the ones that Alexander the Great or Ashoka or even Napoleon fought.
Recently, I came across Mr Fashion Conscious, who in conversation revealed that he does own G-strings. Having never tried that piece of so called underwear—I refuse to even acknowledge the fact that it is something that could be a part of someone’s wardrobe—I thought, maybe I should grill him to reveal a few insider points on them. “So, when do you use it?” I asked, trying to be as discreet and tactful as possible as I obviously didn’t want to reveal the reason for my trespassing into private property. “Oh with a pair of board shorts that become quite transparent when wet,” he replied, quite casually. I didn’t really understand the logic behind this. One question that kept revolving in my mind and still do, as I couldn’t gather up enough courage to ask, was why does he have a pair of board shorts that become ‘quite transparent’ when wet. Aren’t board shorts meant to be worn for surfing, which by default is a water sport? What I did manage to ask though was, “But shouldn’t you be covering up underneath instead of uncovering, in such a situation?” “Yes, but if you wear a proper underwear, the seams show through the board shorts and you can see the shape and it looks bad,” is what I got as an answer. So, it is better to leave nothing for imagination, almost revealing your butt through your board shorts, and have a thin piece of string uncomfortably halfway up your great divide, rather than letting people get a slight glimpse of your underwear? Sorry Mr Fashion Conscious, you’ve got it completely wrong here, and maybe it just might be a better idea to stop using those board shorts as some people out there may not want to see what you’d like to show.
A few days ago, as my mind was revolving around this piece, sub-consciously or consciously I did the unthinkable—Google ‘mens thongs and G-strings’. But to an extent I am quite glad for doing so. I stumbled upon many articles that asserted the health effects of wearing tight underwear, the category in which G-strings fall. Though there were many, the one thing that I felt was most important was the fact that they can make a man impotent! Curious? Well, wearing tight underwear increases the temperature of your testicles which is not suitable for the production of sperm. Wow, while that seems like a good way to control population growth, I don’t think I would like to give away my manhood to something as flimsy as G-strings. So, Mr Fashion Conscious, maybe you’d want to rethink this, what say?
So H&M does it once again! You will never know how this fast-fashion, value-for-money brand manages to get the best designers of the World create collections for them, but you will continue to look out for these surprises.
