SHOWBUZZ: Skinny male models ‘in’ now
Male model dressed by Yvonne Odhiambo during this year's Nairobi fashion market show at the Ngong racecourse on 15-16th November, 2014. Muscular, classically chiselled male models are a dying breed .
What you need to know:
- Back then, “male models were a little bit bigger... not so, so skinny,” said Tricia Romani, head of the Canadian branch of the Wilhelmina international modelling agency.
- Hedi Slimane, while at Saint Laurent and Dior, was among the designers who transfigured the dominant vision of the masculine look into lank, languorous and unique.
- “For high fashion, that’s definitely what they want. Very thin, edgy-looking guys,” Romani said.
Muscular, classically chiselled male models are a dying breed as men are ever more chosen for thinness, even androgyny, in a fashion world playing with the notion of gender.
It only takes looking back a decade to male fashion shows – at Versace, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton or Gucci – to see the change on the catwalk.
Shoulders have lost their squareness, chests have sunk.
Back then, “male models were a little bit bigger... not so, so skinny,” said Tricia Romani, head of the Canadian branch of the Wilhelmina international modelling agency.
Hedi Slimane, while at Saint Laurent and Dior, was among the designers who transfigured the dominant vision of the masculine look into lank, languorous and unique.
“For high fashion, that’s definitely what they want. Very thin, edgy-looking guys,” Romani said.
“And they’re designing the clothes in that way so if you had a model that was big and muscular, that wouldn’t fit.”
Skinnier, the new ideal male model is also taller, hitting up to six feet two inches (1.90 meters), said Neil Mautone, founder and owner of the agency Red Model Management.
