LMen’s fashion has changed. Less virile, more delicate, she now tends to borrow some of her great classics from the women’s wardrobe. Like silk, which is available today more than ever in shirts, pants, pussy-bow tops and even dresses for modern men. Should we attribute this trend to Korean pop stars, importers of a more subtle masculinity and vectors of influence throughout the world? To Timothée Chalamet, specialist in stylistic fluidity, who wears both the backless top and the light shirt wide open on the torso?
Historically, however, silk did not wait for these new idols to become the prerogative of flamboyant men. The Romans were the most fond of it, fascinated by this fabric from the Far East which was said to be equivalent to its weight in gold. So much so that under Tiberius, the Roman senate issued a decree prohibiting the wearing of silk for men, both for economic… and moral reasons. Legend has it that the emperor feared that his citizens would become “soft and weak” in contact with so much refinement.
Other intellectuals of the time saw silk as a symbol of decadence, like the philosopher Seneca who, in Book VII of his Benefitswriting : “I can see silk clothes, if fabrics that do not cover the body, nor even the decency of‘a man can be called clothes…”
Banned, cherished or reviled
Still in Europe, medieval this time, silk dresses the nobility and the aristocracy, thus becoming a symbol of opulence – and prestige. Under the Renaissance, said material even became royal. As evidenced by the portrait of Francis Ier by the painter Jean Clouet (around 1485-1541). The sovereign appears more majestic than ever and above all dressed in a sumptuous costume composed, among other things, of a long jacket made of strips of white silk satin and a striped silk velvet doublet.
Pop culture has also brought its share of men in silk. Whether it is Hugh Hefner, emblematic founder of the magazine Playboy, who never parted from her burgundy bathrobe. Or Robert De Niro in Casino (1995, by Martin Scorsese), whose pink silk dressing gown, dotted with purple patterns, has the gift of making one of his mafia colleagues, played by Joe Pesci, scream. ” Look at you ! You walk around like John Barrymore! A fucking pink dress and a fucking cigarette holder? “, the criminal strangles, referring to a scene from the film The Eight O’Clock Guests (1933), in which the aforementioned Barrymore also struts around in a silk bathrobe. Alternately banned, cherished or reviled, this material has in any case ended up leaving the privacy of the bedroom. To the great pleasure of the creators, who have not finished showing it off.
