Displaying items by tag: Bruce Weber

The silk pyjama shirt has become a fixture in our wardrobes - it was one of the most popular men’s items in the recent Erdem X H&M collaboration -  Read 'The Return of The Sexy Shirt' - and it was inevitable, in all its louche, open-shirtedness, that we needed something extra to decorate our chests with. Enter the medallion. 

Left - Fashion week street style

This look hasn’t been cool since the seventies with the combined stench of Brut aftershave and porn-star taches. But we're peacocking again and this overt masculinity is the reason why it is back. It’s very Burt Reynolds, very Magnum PI and has a musky, hirsute sexiness to it.

Right - Alex Orso - Disc - Gold - £125

I’m loving a silk shirt ATM, see one of my favourites of the season here and you wear it open with confidence. It could be the “Call Me By Your Name” effect, where the medallion necklace is an important signifier within the film  - see more Call Me By Your Name style here or it's the effect of guys being more flamboyant and wearing printed silk shirts.

Team with silk trousers and a smile. Have you got the swagger for a medallion?

Left - Black Dakini - Disk Pendant Sterling Silver Necklace - £355 from Matchesfashion.com

Below - Vintage Bruce Weber Versace 

Below Right - Steve McQueen

Far Left -Ryan Gosling

Middle - The medallion draws attention to your chest

Left - More McQueen

Left - Tom Selleck being Tom Selleck

Below Left - Call Me By Your Name - the older character shows his influence on the younger one when he starts to copy him and wear the same necklace

Below - Chained & Able - St. Christopher - £22 from ASOS

You're going to need a silk shirt to go with this - see more here The Return of 'The Sexy Shirt'

So, Raf Simons unveiled his first full collection for Calvin Klein. As about exciting as New York fashion gets, it was an accomplished - of course it was, he's had plenty of experience - collection which, no doubt, Americans are breathlessly hailing as the 'New Look'. but it just looked like yet another Raf Simons collection. Where was the sex?

From Left - Bruce Weber advert for Calvin Klein underwear (1982), FW17 Calvin Klein Collection

Raf Simons showed his own eponymous menswear collection, the week before, with the same leg-warmers-as-sleeves idea he put on the catwalk here. This Calvin Klein Collection was wearably different, yet without any of the minimal sex appeal that Calvin Klein was built upon. Who could forget Kate Moss' nipples in that sheer, simple dress circa '93?

Raf Simons should have added athleticism to the collection in the casting of the models to differentiate between his and this collection. Maybe that'll be coming in future advertising, but if Raf Simons is going to connect and drive sales with the masses who have never heard of him and probably don't care about him, then it needs sex.

Fashion has a strange relationship with sex, but Calvin Klein pioneered the objectification of men and their bodies in advertising through the 80s and 90s. What looks quite tame, today, was revolutionary at the time and the first time men and women really looked at men's bodies.

But, whether it's the 80s or, as Instagram proves, today, people will never tire of looking at firm and worked out men's bodies. Ultimately, as always, sex sells and that's what the new Calvin Klein needs. 

 Left - Calvin Klein Obsession advertising (1987)