Man Friday The fashion gloves are off
Fight night isn’t usually the kind of thing to muscle its way into style columns, but these are no ordinary boxers. I say that not from any insight into Conor Mcgregor and Floyd Mayweather’s fighting ability, because what I don’t know about boxing is vast, but from their peacock posturing through the means of fashion. In various press conferences, photo ops and on social media, the pair have shaken their tail feathers in a series of bold and brilliant outfits, sparring through their style in an alpha male oneupmanship display straight from Sir David Attenborough. Forget punches; when one hits hard with a flamboyant Gucci jacket, the other comes back strong with a rococo Versace explosion.
Boxing has always enjoyed a sense of showmanship and sartorial swaggering – think of Chris Eubank’s Jeeves and Woosteresque suits – and it’s clear that through fashion these fellows are sports, Mayweather and Mcgregor are clearly enjoying dressing up and donning their most lavish attire in a kind of recherché ostentatiousness last seen at the court of Louis XIV, when men in powdered wigs and rouged cheeks were the norm.
It’s also unashamedly camp, proving that both are secure enough in their masculinity to embrace a touch of frou frou Liberace fabulousness. What modern men can take from this is that, irrespective of sexuality, sometimes it’s worth having fun with fashion and enjoying its more outre realms, be it a patterned shirt or floral jacket.
You don’t need to be a prize fighter to don a winning look.