CALLING OUT THE MEN

KUALA Lumpur Fashion Week has no shortage of men’s wear brands, but they seem to be stuck in a rut. Looks from a number of so-called streetwear labels appear to be recycled, with no obvious difference with what they showed last year, while others are just impractical, to say the least.

Andy Bandy’s Provocateur includes see-through tops and pants or bright-coloured pullovers matched with spandex briefs, leaving less room for imagination. Nerd Unit’s sporty tops and bottoms are like a mismatch of everything, making one to wonder about the practicality of including them in one’s wardrobe.

Despite the silliness of clear umbrellas and plastic hats courtesy of Bremen Wong Millinery, Private

Stitch charms the crowd with its striped shirts and relaxed trousers that combines orange with green. Fashionable overalls are seen at Supercrew and Tarik Jeans, perhaps in salute to workmen everywhere.

But some tributes are less than stellar. JTNC seems to bring up issues of racism in the US and the prevalent gun culture there with his collection, but here in Malaysia with issues of our own, it ends up hollow and opportunistic.

Atelier Fitton’s collection, called Broken, is inspired by mental health issues. It showcases pleated gladiator skirts and exhaustive military-styled jacket that’s mainly a play of black-on-black layering. It’s melancholic and boring, a sad representation of people struggling with mental health.

Nabil Volkers straight up described its collection as Lucified - causing a bout of second-hand embarrassment for the writer - while the hotly anticipated Projek Jahat makes its debut with a collection called Season In Hell that consists mainly of worn out (or recycled?) denim jackets with DIY spray-painted artworks, scribbled vulgar or protest statements and patches. It’s all a bit trying too hard.