Maybe you have to be old, like me, to see it, but the perpetual pendulum of fit in menswear has begun to swing back from the apogee of small and tight toward an easier and softer silhouette. I’m seeing fuller legs, higher waistlines, and wider shoulders—super comfortable clothing, which will peak in about 2040.

You can see this trend as it’s progressed from the oversized Zoot Suits of the 1940s Jazz Age to the slim sixties of Dior and Saint-Laurent, swinging back to the flowing lines of Armani and Donna Karan, and then to Thom Browne’s Pee-Wee Herman 21st century look. It happens in 20-year arcs, a steady series of oscillations, 40 years back and forth, from loose to tight and back to loose. It’s not that a guy wakes up and thinks, “Man, these pants are too tight.” Rather, it’s that his mate or a good salesperson will get him to buy that new, fuller trouser, shirt, or jacket. The first time he wears it, he thinks, “Naaah.” Then, after a couple of weeks, he puts it on and thinks, “Yeah. This is cool.” And those leotard-tight jeans and man-boob knits finally make it to Good Will. The change is usually accompanied by technological developments in textiles, until a retailer and his clothes-conscious customers begin to realize a new style. Finally, we have something exciting, revolutionary even, to show and talk about in the store. It’s exhilarating.

“If protective tariffs are actually contemplated to protect the apparel industry in the U.S., someone should tell them that there’s no industry left to protect.”

 

So there’s that. The refreshing breeze of something new sweeping into the men’s department, enlivening the discourse, even if the audience is not ready. Something different. What’s not different—and does not appear to be changing—is the great societal-retail divide. There are two markets, which I’ll call the functional and the aesthetic. Functional is the online or chain-store customer who doesn’t care much about clothing or about personal service, (perhaps because it’s so rare). For him, clothes are an unimportant necessity, and price is always an issue. The aesthetic market, where we dwell, is the realm of the affluent client who values the advice and opinion of a knowledgeable professional and is willing to pay for quality products and a better level of service.

The most important change in our world is our everyday challenge: seeking out products deserving of a sophisticated client’s aesthetic approval. Also, a change we must make every day is the constant development and refining of our skills in presentation, product knowledge, the mechanics of measuring, and precise fitting. Every day, our task is to earn and maintain the trust and confidence of this aesthetically oriented client. Learning to serve the connoisseur with expertise.

So how can the malaise of clothing-apathy be overcome? Can it be? As an industry, the most serious challenge we now face is changing the style mindset of men. In a world where mourners go to a funeral in untucked shirts and jeans, what can be done to inspire respect for self or others? After all, aren’t we mostly preaching to the choir? Who can convince men that there are levels of appropriate dress above leaf-raking attire? Who to suggest a nice shirt and a shirt-jacket or sweater instead of that sweatshirt with your kid’s college logo? Can we find and celebrate men who care about appearance instead of billionaires in their frayed tee shirts and hoodies? Where is today’s version of John Molloy’s Dress for Success? How about if, for instance, The New York Times men’s section would show something one might actually wear? Okay, okay. I’ll stop whining.

Other things that might affect the men’s clothing industry seem secondary to me. I don’t follow politics much. It’s too depressing. Clothing manufacturers in the ’70s and ’80s were hurt by 30 percent tariffs on fine worsteds from Italy, a protective tax dreamed up by Southern congressmen to protect a vanished U.S. textile industry. I guess someone’s considering that again. If protective tariffs are actually contemplated to protect the apparel industry in the U.S., someone should tell them that there’s no industry left to protect, to go back and start again, and turn their attention to something that matters. Want to restore manufacturing? Find someone who can train people, and people who want to be trained. Maybe consider letting in more immigrants who will be happy to work at a sewing machine or in a fabric mill all day… Oh, right: never mind.

Who can say what will happen? Could anyone have predicted Covid 19? I figure the status quo will continue to be that, a gradual shift toward the functional market as virtual merchandising and popular media hype continue to “improve.” Certainly, online shopping will increase, and the principal victims will be the chain store and mall-oriented department stores. The likes of Nordstrom’s acknowledged “C” locations will follow Brooks Brothers and Lord & Taylor into oblivion. Why drive somewhere to get the same (or worse) service than you can get on your phone?

By 2030, unless there’s some catastrophic change, not much will be different except the sensibility of fit. Clothing will be bigger. Some designer will capture the attention of the masses with a ridiculous extreme that will eventually lead to a break into the mainstream. Perhaps Balenciaga already has.

To help with this, I took my crystal ball out of the cupboard where I put it in 2020, dusted it off to see if it still had some juju, turned the dial to 2030 and the setting to MEN’S CLOTHES. It hummed and sputtered a little, then I thought I saw some tremors in it, but all I got was some French gibberish that sounded like “plus ça change plus c’est la même chose.” The rich were definitely richer, but I didn’t get the sense that education was improving. I saw the mid-priced elements of the clothing industry almost gone, replaced by price-oriented, automated shopping sites. Hype was supreme; influencers were in charge. I saw people buying super-expensive stuff based on whose label it had rather than how good it was. There were still a few connoisseurs looking for better things, but not many folks who could understand or explain what “better” even was. I saw the average guy continuing to look average or maybe less-than-average. This was hard to make out; he was moving so fast, trying to make a living, but for sure, his pants were baggier, shoulders wider. Everybody was still bowing toward Milan and Paris. Odd, because none of the countries that make the clothing (Turkey, Romania and especially China) had yet stood up to say, “Hey. We’re as good as Italy! And better prices.” Nobody seemed interested in doing what Japan did: turning a menswear Datsun into an Infiniti.

The phones of the future looked really cool though.

 

Image generated by ChatGPT.