It used to be easy to identify the male peacock by his distinctive, dandyish markings: a three-piece-suit, possibly in a luxurious fabric, perhaps a pocket square and even a showy printed shirt. Now, however, he’s taken on a new guise. In 2017, the peacock tends to favour a mixed-up look, part sporty, part smart — say a spangly jacket and logo T-shirt from Gucci with matching tracksuit bottoms.
The recent AW17 menswear shows were crammed with bright colours, textures and playful accessories; there were fuzzy logo-printed pool slides at Fendi (further evidence that logomania is back), neon orange sweatpants at Gosha Rubchinskiy, or, the holy grail for the modern peacock, the entire Louis Vuitton x Supreme collaboration that featured punchy red bumbags. For a shining (literally) example of how to wear it off the catwalk, look to actor Jared Leto, friend and muse of Gucci designer Alessandro Michele, who wore a red Gucci overcoat embroidered with roses and a giant sloppy beanie hat to the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party. (His look to the ceremony was equally flamboyant — he replaced his tie with a red carnation.) Ryan Gosling’s Oscar outfit demonstrated a similarly risqué attitude: he teamed his tuxedo with a frilly white ruffled shirt of a style last seen in the 1970s. It received mixed reviews, and lots of column inches. Or how about Jaden Smith? The 18-year-old Louis Vuitton muse, model and actor son of Will Smith, has become one of the most recognisable faces on the front row for his careful wardrobe of street couture.
It was Alessandro Michele who murdered minimalism when he took the helm of Gucci in 2015 and began pushing clothing-cum-costume. He made eclecticism mainstream — a mixed-up, shook-up look that had previously been confined to the runways of niche London designers. At his recent AW17 show — the brand’s first combined menswear and womenswear offering — he offered 120 looks that were rich in diverse historical references, embellishments and colours. There were fringed parasols, logo headbands, ornate floral suits worn with jazzy socks, dresses that looked like they could have been borrowed from the wardrobe department of a 1970s sitcom and full glittering body suits — hardly typical wardrobe classics.