Does fabric have an inherent gender? As menswear designers continue to surprise with their use of lace, floral silk, chiffon and bouclé, what does the use of textiles more commonly associated with womenswear mean? These materials aren’t merely attention-seeking runway showpieces: they are at the core of many collections. So is it a case of novelty, subversion or part of a complex shift towards gender-neutral fashion?
Carlo Brandelli at Savile Row tailors Kilgour has been using bouclé — a wool as integral to the feminine lexicon of Chanel as its N°5 fragrance — for more than a decade. “I use the same mill as Chanel and have no hesitation in using fabrics associated with womenswear,” he says. “It was always very bizarre to me that fabric manufacturers set separate appointments for men’s and women’s textile collections. Then, when I started designing my own fabrics in 2004 it meant I could dictate the brief completely.”
Brandelli’s tailoring is austere and masculine but its design is driven by texture. Like the dazzling brocade bomber jackets at Dries Van Noten, or Alexander McQueen’s Victorian moth foil embroidery this season, it fits with a growing trend in menswear.