This week seems to be about well-dressed men. I have a weakness for them.
I finally got around to reading a big thick tasty biography of Beau Brummell. Considered Head Dandy of his Georgian generation and many subsequent generations. It’s turning out to be a fine read. Unashamed obsession and manipulation of clothing to social and political ends.
And one of my blog feeds – Happy Mundane – just brought me to a Prada film ‘First Spring’ put together for their Spring 2010 Menswear collection. It is a very beautiful 9 black and white, evocative minutes. Slightly strange. It is also, unsurprisingly, like one long photograph from a fashion campaign. I have always liked arty film shorts, though. This one just has some very well dressed models and great Shanghai scenery to make it more of a treat to the eye.
It was commissioned from Chinese artist Yang Fudong. You can smell the money they must have spent on this. But then Prada have the money to spend and fancy themselves as art collectors and curators, as well as designers.
Overtly commercial undertakings like this obviously find it hard to be considered ‘proper art’ by the cognoscenti. But I’m so well ensconced in all things fashion history that I don’t question much. Worry less. And just enjoy the sight of a well turned-up trouser and a sharp sloping shoulder line.
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