Drafts by Jay L McCauley Bowstead
Selvedge, 2018
'Both the decorative nature of lace and its tendency to expose skin led it, particularly in the 1... more 'Both the decorative nature of lace and its tendency to expose skin led it, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, to be associated with femininity. Recent use of lace in men's fashion has functioned to refocus the desiring gaze towards the male body. In this way, lace acts as a repudiation of a modernist, bourgeois form of masculinity characterised by rationality and functionality.'
Papers by Jay L McCauley Bowstead
Critical Studies in Men's Fashion , 2020
This article focuses on the collections of London-based, Glaswegian designer
Charles Jeffrey who... more This article focuses on the collections of London-based, Glaswegian designer
Charles Jeffrey who has won plaudits for his spectacular, subversive, theatrical
and highly camp catwalk shows. His label LOVERBOY – having grown out of an
East London club night of the same name – brings together eclectic historical references with the stylistic bricolage of the queer scene from which it emerged. Using
a combination of image analysis and a semi-structured interview with Jeffrey, this
article investigates how he has blurred the boundaries between the nightclub and
the runway, the collective and the named designer to formulate a distinctly queer
mode of fashion practice. At LOVERBOY the transformative possibilities of the
nightclub; the heightened emotion of the dance floor; and the embodied, affective,
temporal qualities of ‘queer sociality’ are transposed onto the catwalk, revealing
the role of fashion and clothing in practices of queer world-making. Camp aesthetics
and queer nightlife have played a crucial role in the history of fashion – perhaps
most notably during the 1980s when designers like Bodymap, Jean Paul Gaultier
and Stephen Linard drew extensively on queer signifiers in their work. However, the success of LOVERBOY marks a shift in contemporary cultures of gender as
discourses of queerness and performativity reach a new point of amplification.
After the seriousness, refinement and minimalism of millennial fashion, the liminality,
polysemy and exuberance of camp has again reasserted its transgressive
potential.
Valet Magazine, 2021
There has been a lot of see-through fabric in high-end men’s fashion in recent years: voiles, gau... more There has been a lot of see-through fabric in high-end men’s fashion in recent years: voiles, gauze, and diaphanous jersey. These vaporous, veil-like, translucent cloths can be seen as a metaphor for the fluid, hybrid, complex, and porous nature of identity today, and have been used by menswear designers such as Rick Owens, Craig Green, Feng Chen Wang, Munn Seoul, and Ludovic de Saint Sernin to articulate ambiguous, hybrid aesthetics that evoke a liminal space between the masculine and the feminine, the East and the West, the contemporary and the nostalgic, and the natural and the man-made. The gaps between these polarities are the spaces through which we navigate contemporary life: Shifting geographies of power, the changing nature of work, evolving discourses of gender, and the existential challenges posed by climate change. It’s perhaps unsurprising that in such a radically unsettled cultural and political context, practitioners of menswear should propose designs that are simultaneously outré and enigmatic, and while such utopian re-imaginings are hardly likely to be adopted wholesale by most consumers, they nevertheless offer intriguing visions of a possible future.
Fashion Practice, 2021
The fashion industry is experiencing rapid structural change as new manufacturing and distributio... more The fashion industry is experiencing rapid structural change as new manufacturing and distribution technologies emerge. Simultaneously, the environmental impact of garment production and the sector’s record on workers’ rights provokes increasing disquiet. This article explores how new technologies for distributing and making clothes interact with a shifting industrial policy agenda as neoclassical and neoliberal economic paradigms lose their dominance, and state intervention becomes fashionable again.
Contemporary ready-to-wear production, which relies on manufacturing goods speculatively in hope that they will meet consumers’ needs, is massively wasteful, and the sector has experienced a series of shocks as established brands fail to correctly anticipate demand. Online-bespoke ¬– in which garments are made to the specifications of the customer ¬– has emerged as a promising sector. In changing how we buy and produce garments, can we transform how we value our clothes, the resources from which they are composed, and how we value the people who make them?
This article argues that in order to reap the benefits of new and disruptive technologies, national governments and multilateral organizations must develop industrial strategies to shift current market incentives. Protections for fledgling sustainable and technologically innovative fashion brands, along with Pigovian taxation (taxation targeting negative externalities like pollution), are required to transform the industry.
This article analyses the role of designer Hedi Slimane in shaping the development of menswear in... more This article analyses the role of designer Hedi Slimane in shaping the development of menswear in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Slimane's collections for Dior Homme in the early 2000s caught the imagination of the fashion press with their combination of a radically slim silhouette, precise tailoring and androgynous flourishes. Along with the commercial success he brought to Dior, Slimane catalyzed a renewed interest in menswear, the aesthetic he proposed acting as a prototype for men's fashion throughout the decade. By contrasting Slimane's slender, ambiguous and self-consciously elegant look with the sporty muscularity of the 1990s catwalk, the article explores the shifting nature of male identity in the new millennium as fashionable men found new ways of consuming their masculinity.
Books by Jay L McCauley Bowstead
A preview of my book Menswear Revolution published in May 2018 https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/mens... more A preview of my book Menswear Revolution published in May 2018 https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/menswear-revolution-9781474289016/.
In recent years, menswear has moved decisively center stage. Menswear Revolution investigates the transformation of men's fashion through the lens of shifting masculinities, examining how its increasing diversity has created new ways for men to explore and express their identities. Harnessing sustained market growth and creative dynamism on the runway, ground-breaking designers from Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane to Craig Green and Grace Wales Bonner have revolutionized the discipline with their bold re-imaginings of the male wardrobe.
Analysing the role of the media in shaping attitudes to men's fashion, Menswear Revolution studies how competing narratives of masculinity are reflected in popular discourse. Taking us from the mod and peacock revolutions of the 1960s to the new wave aesthetics of the 1980s, the book explores historical precedents for today's menswear scene – and looks at the evolution of the 'ideal' male body, from the muscular to the lean and boyish.
Combining interviews with fashion professionals with close analyses of garments and advertising, Menswear Revolution provides an authoritative account of menswear design today. Highlighting its relationship to changing concepts of gender, the book provides a much-needed update to scholarship on masculinity, fashion and the body.
Ends Meet: Essays on Exchange , 2014
This Chapter from 'Ends Meet' is focused on the fashion boutique as a site of cultural exchange, ... more This Chapter from 'Ends Meet' is focused on the fashion boutique as a site of cultural exchange, and more broadly on the 'aesthetic economy' of fashion. The chapter explores the ways in which commercial and semi-commercial spaces act as nexus for cultural intermediaries and the boutique as a space of imagination, initiation and transformation.
Sparkling, luminescent rhomboid reflections, systematised impressionism, deconstructed pointillis... more Sparkling, luminescent rhomboid reflections, systematised impressionism, deconstructed pointillism. Like atoms in crystalline formation melting into liquid they seem to swim – the lights of the city reflected on a skin of water – phthalo-green, oxide of chrome, raw sienna, then ochre, tints of scarlet and a litany of intense, transcendent blues: cobalt, cerulean, Prussian ... bright and sombre hues, tertiary colours, tints and neutrals. The painting is Nataraja (1993) by Bridget Riley.
Conference Presentations by Jay L McCauley Bowstead
Globalising Men's Style Official Programme, 2020
The Globalising Men’s Style Conference will now be taking place online from the 21st to the 23rd ... more The Globalising Men’s Style Conference will now be taking place online from the 21st to the 23rd of July. https://globalisingmensstyle.wordpress.com/
Over the past two decades men’s style has become an increasingly dynamic field. At the same time, the dominance of Western fashion capitals has been challenged by innovative menswear, street style, and high-end design emanating out of new centres of creative practice.
This conference investigates men’s style in locales underrepresented in existing academic literature while exploring the connections between distant geographies (both today and in the past). Shifting notions of masculinity as expressed through clothing are also addressed.
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Drafts by Jay L McCauley Bowstead
Papers by Jay L McCauley Bowstead
Charles Jeffrey who has won plaudits for his spectacular, subversive, theatrical
and highly camp catwalk shows. His label LOVERBOY – having grown out of an
East London club night of the same name – brings together eclectic historical references with the stylistic bricolage of the queer scene from which it emerged. Using
a combination of image analysis and a semi-structured interview with Jeffrey, this
article investigates how he has blurred the boundaries between the nightclub and
the runway, the collective and the named designer to formulate a distinctly queer
mode of fashion practice. At LOVERBOY the transformative possibilities of the
nightclub; the heightened emotion of the dance floor; and the embodied, affective,
temporal qualities of ‘queer sociality’ are transposed onto the catwalk, revealing
the role of fashion and clothing in practices of queer world-making. Camp aesthetics
and queer nightlife have played a crucial role in the history of fashion – perhaps
most notably during the 1980s when designers like Bodymap, Jean Paul Gaultier
and Stephen Linard drew extensively on queer signifiers in their work. However, the success of LOVERBOY marks a shift in contemporary cultures of gender as
discourses of queerness and performativity reach a new point of amplification.
After the seriousness, refinement and minimalism of millennial fashion, the liminality,
polysemy and exuberance of camp has again reasserted its transgressive
potential.
Contemporary ready-to-wear production, which relies on manufacturing goods speculatively in hope that they will meet consumers’ needs, is massively wasteful, and the sector has experienced a series of shocks as established brands fail to correctly anticipate demand. Online-bespoke ¬– in which garments are made to the specifications of the customer ¬– has emerged as a promising sector. In changing how we buy and produce garments, can we transform how we value our clothes, the resources from which they are composed, and how we value the people who make them?
This article argues that in order to reap the benefits of new and disruptive technologies, national governments and multilateral organizations must develop industrial strategies to shift current market incentives. Protections for fledgling sustainable and technologically innovative fashion brands, along with Pigovian taxation (taxation targeting negative externalities like pollution), are required to transform the industry.
Books by Jay L McCauley Bowstead
In recent years, menswear has moved decisively center stage. Menswear Revolution investigates the transformation of men's fashion through the lens of shifting masculinities, examining how its increasing diversity has created new ways for men to explore and express their identities. Harnessing sustained market growth and creative dynamism on the runway, ground-breaking designers from Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane to Craig Green and Grace Wales Bonner have revolutionized the discipline with their bold re-imaginings of the male wardrobe.
Analysing the role of the media in shaping attitudes to men's fashion, Menswear Revolution studies how competing narratives of masculinity are reflected in popular discourse. Taking us from the mod and peacock revolutions of the 1960s to the new wave aesthetics of the 1980s, the book explores historical precedents for today's menswear scene – and looks at the evolution of the 'ideal' male body, from the muscular to the lean and boyish.
Combining interviews with fashion professionals with close analyses of garments and advertising, Menswear Revolution provides an authoritative account of menswear design today. Highlighting its relationship to changing concepts of gender, the book provides a much-needed update to scholarship on masculinity, fashion and the body.
Conference Presentations by Jay L McCauley Bowstead
Over the past two decades men’s style has become an increasingly dynamic field. At the same time, the dominance of Western fashion capitals has been challenged by innovative menswear, street style, and high-end design emanating out of new centres of creative practice.
This conference investigates men’s style in locales underrepresented in existing academic literature while exploring the connections between distant geographies (both today and in the past). Shifting notions of masculinity as expressed through clothing are also addressed.
Charles Jeffrey who has won plaudits for his spectacular, subversive, theatrical
and highly camp catwalk shows. His label LOVERBOY – having grown out of an
East London club night of the same name – brings together eclectic historical references with the stylistic bricolage of the queer scene from which it emerged. Using
a combination of image analysis and a semi-structured interview with Jeffrey, this
article investigates how he has blurred the boundaries between the nightclub and
the runway, the collective and the named designer to formulate a distinctly queer
mode of fashion practice. At LOVERBOY the transformative possibilities of the
nightclub; the heightened emotion of the dance floor; and the embodied, affective,
temporal qualities of ‘queer sociality’ are transposed onto the catwalk, revealing
the role of fashion and clothing in practices of queer world-making. Camp aesthetics
and queer nightlife have played a crucial role in the history of fashion – perhaps
most notably during the 1980s when designers like Bodymap, Jean Paul Gaultier
and Stephen Linard drew extensively on queer signifiers in their work. However, the success of LOVERBOY marks a shift in contemporary cultures of gender as
discourses of queerness and performativity reach a new point of amplification.
After the seriousness, refinement and minimalism of millennial fashion, the liminality,
polysemy and exuberance of camp has again reasserted its transgressive
potential.
Contemporary ready-to-wear production, which relies on manufacturing goods speculatively in hope that they will meet consumers’ needs, is massively wasteful, and the sector has experienced a series of shocks as established brands fail to correctly anticipate demand. Online-bespoke ¬– in which garments are made to the specifications of the customer ¬– has emerged as a promising sector. In changing how we buy and produce garments, can we transform how we value our clothes, the resources from which they are composed, and how we value the people who make them?
This article argues that in order to reap the benefits of new and disruptive technologies, national governments and multilateral organizations must develop industrial strategies to shift current market incentives. Protections for fledgling sustainable and technologically innovative fashion brands, along with Pigovian taxation (taxation targeting negative externalities like pollution), are required to transform the industry.
In recent years, menswear has moved decisively center stage. Menswear Revolution investigates the transformation of men's fashion through the lens of shifting masculinities, examining how its increasing diversity has created new ways for men to explore and express their identities. Harnessing sustained market growth and creative dynamism on the runway, ground-breaking designers from Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane to Craig Green and Grace Wales Bonner have revolutionized the discipline with their bold re-imaginings of the male wardrobe.
Analysing the role of the media in shaping attitudes to men's fashion, Menswear Revolution studies how competing narratives of masculinity are reflected in popular discourse. Taking us from the mod and peacock revolutions of the 1960s to the new wave aesthetics of the 1980s, the book explores historical precedents for today's menswear scene – and looks at the evolution of the 'ideal' male body, from the muscular to the lean and boyish.
Combining interviews with fashion professionals with close analyses of garments and advertising, Menswear Revolution provides an authoritative account of menswear design today. Highlighting its relationship to changing concepts of gender, the book provides a much-needed update to scholarship on masculinity, fashion and the body.
Over the past two decades men’s style has become an increasingly dynamic field. At the same time, the dominance of Western fashion capitals has been challenged by innovative menswear, street style, and high-end design emanating out of new centres of creative practice.
This conference investigates men’s style in locales underrepresented in existing academic literature while exploring the connections between distant geographies (both today and in the past). Shifting notions of masculinity as expressed through clothing are also addressed.