PINK MAKES THE BOYS THINK
Is it time to come out in favour of the most maligned of colours, asks Stephen Doig
While it’s not standard practice in these pages to wait breathlessly to see what a former member of boy band One Direction is wearing (pass me my pipe and pensioner’s bus pass, won’t you?), this week Zayn Malik tapped into a growing shift in men’s style. The pop star wore a soft pink suit by Richard James to the Grammys, made of wool with a very discreet check in the weave, and a sharp white shirt worn sans tie. It’s not wildly groundbreaking, but he looked great.
And after a conversation with British designer Oliver Spencer, it struck a chord. Spencer, who runs his own namesake label as well as the more traditional suiting outfitter Favourbrook, mentions that his most popular suit colour, after navy and grey, is pink. Who knew? Perhaps it’s time to rethink pink.
Of course, the outdated ethos is that pink is for girls and blue is for boys, pink is effeminate and sparkly, the stuff of kitten’s noses, tutus and ribbons. Blue is industrious and masculine, the colour of trucks and power tools.
It’s an attitude that should have been swept into the privy around the time Emmeline Pankhurst won her cause. But for some ridiculous reason men are still wary of the colour. (I might suggest that if your masculinity hangs on such a ragged thread that it’s called into question by a cherry-coloured T-shirt, you perhaps want to address that ahead of your wardrobe quandaries.)
It’s no longer
de rigueur for toys and children’s clothing to be deliberately “gendered”, so perhaps it’s time for pink to make an emergence in men’s wardrobes. The tone of pink is the linchpin here; violent fuchsia is all very well on Widow Twankey but it can be challenging in real life. Malik’s suit works so well as it has a greyish tinge to the pink, so look for more subtle iterations such as this. Likewise, consider your own skin tone. If you’re pale or after six minutes in the sun turn colour of seared bacon, it’s best to steer clear lest you take on a porcine quality.
And while wedding season is a long way off, it’s certainly worth considering the hue for summer matrimonials; a suit in a soft rose colour is anything but corporate, and looks as at home – with a corsage and neutral shirt and shoes – in the rolling English countryside as the Italian riviera.
Or do as Tom Ford has recommended since he began his own menswear label (he features pink in myriad forms season after season) and break the colour up with, for example, an eggshell-toned pair of chinos; it also looks great with camel and olive tones.
Spare your blushes? Not any more.
The outdated ethos is that pink is sparkly and effeminate, the stuff of tutus