Letter from the Editors

Abstract

It has only been in the last twenty years that men's fashion has gained attention as a discreet disciplinary area of study across the arts and humanities. Up until as late as 1994, when fashion studies entered the academy, information about men's fashion was not included in studies of masculinities; if anything, a cursory mention was made in an occasional book chapter or academic article. This was because fashion was considered frivolous and narcissistic, and not worthy of any serious scholarly attention, unless you were a woman or queer. Fashion was regulated to the domain of the feminine and the body, as opposed to art and architecture, which were deemed masculine and placed in the sphere of the mind and the psyche. Up until the mid-eighteenth century, men's clothing was made of plush fabrics, constructed silhouettes, and refined forms that signaled wealth and aristocratic status. Influenced by the Enlightenment ideas of reason and rationality, men's clothing became more utilitarian and functional, abandoning wigs, stockings, and high heels in favor of garments such as the suit. Exaggerated forms were left to women's fashion, as men relinquished their claim to adornment and beauty and fashion became associated with femininity and frivolity. It was, as John Flügel claimed, the Great Male Renunciation that was to burden masculinity for the next four hundred years.