While prints have been women’s wardrobe staple since forever, menswear has adopted a printed avatar for good. A fashion movement popularised by Dolce & Gabbana in Spring 2013, continued by Marc Jacobs in Fall 2014 and we see it picking up at an unbelievable pace.
Runway Prints
Prints were predominant at runways with Gucci leading the flora overalls and Dries Van Noten being a close subordinate. Balmain, Alexandre Wang, 3.1 Philip Lim, and Calvin Klein majored at checks and stripes. Dolce & Gabbana seemed to be inspired by art and architecture.
More than a trend, it’s a revolution and designer Ken Ferns can’t help but agree, “Printed pants for men are a development from the 60s & 70s – a complete comeback- from solids to now prints, I think they are rather stylish. I showcased printed pants for men in my collections at SS 13 & AW 13. It’s a trend that has caught up, since it’s a complete new form of style statement, and design feature. Something new and quirky-most definitely above the average trouser that’s commonly worn.”
Bollywood Prints
Men may shy away from prints but it’s the era of androgynous dressing and prints are just an indigenous part of the fashion culture. Having said that, Bollywood has accepted the trend wholeheartedly it seems as we see many of our masculine hotties carrying it off with élan.
While Akshay Kumar has favourited checks, florals seems to be Abhishek Bacchan’s type. Farhan Akhtar turned in a pair of much light hearted floral camouflage pants. While, as we’d unanimously agree that Ranveer Singh have been spotted trying out crazy prints, be it a checked shirt, or an overall printed suit.
Having said that, we have also seen him committing one too many fashion mishaps at wearing this trend. So how does one avoid such accidents? Designer Ken Ferns gives his valuable advice on wearing prints, “To get this right one needs to coordinate it correct – the pants being the dominating part of the wardrobe the shirts/t-shirts can go subtle and lesser detailed. Or could have a uniform print like an overall. To be on the safer side geometric, Aztec , tribal and allover repeat prints in small designs are best suited.”
What Women Want?
Men may love or loathe this trend, but before anything a guy would wonder what do women think? Would his lady find him less masculine? Or would she think of him as uber stylish? The quirky designer Nida Mahmood believes one should make sure to maintain a balance, “The best way to sport it is on shirts and scarves so as to keep the look balanced. Team your favourite check shirt with a suitable plain trouser or if you are the experimental sort you can opt for mixing and matching two different kinds of checks and stripes on your shirt and scarf. Can be fun!”
Designer Amy Billimoria is completely supportive of this trend and believes men should be open to including prints in their wardrobes, “Prints have and will be a must have in every male wardrobe with the upsurge of prints that are in for Spring Summer 2014.”
Taking it up a notch, Amy feels mixing prints could be unconventional and fun, “Print mixing is not limited anymore by the conventional rules, and therefore we can see a multiple mix of prints in one garment too. Be careful to team it up with the right colors of cotton corduroys or denims as we definitely don’t want the overdone look!”
Now that the women approve, there’s no excuse to not try out all the prints you can get your hands on. Whilst browsing through the net we got to know that Arrow is launching this trend in India. Look out for more news on this soon!
By: Jeremy Cabral
