Men in sequins

Men who surround themselves with pretty. The man who loves the feel of silk and the smell of flowers, the twirl of charming dresses and allure of eye shadow. The man who treads in his sister’s frock and wears his mom’s lipstick on his 8th birthday. The man who doesn’t have to snap open bras. He spends most of his money on candles & clothes. He is a home maker and has found the perfect white and blue chinese crockery set. These are some men wearing what they like..

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Vir Shete, 19. Read about Vir here, here, here, and here.

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Elton has a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature, World History and Political Science; has done odd jobs as a banker & Google Ad words coordinator; was a mega finalist at the 2003 SS music voice hunt (SS Music is like Mtv of the south)…and finally, after refusing to sing Tamil rap that would’ve led him to become a huge Tamil rap sensation..is now a humble make-up artist and a hair stylist.

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“Throughout my childhood, I felt I was horrid at everything but music, cooking, decor and language. So I always knew I’d end up doing something related to art and design. I used to paint oil on canvas but everything changed after a make-up artist friend introduced me to a talking canvas!“

 

“When I was a kid, I would parade around the house in my mom’s scarf, blouse, high-heels, & make up and end up amusing or angering my family & relatives. I had a picture of me in that get up but I got rid of it when I was a bit older. It was too embarrassing.

During college days, I would mostly wear tight pants and would use my mom’s sewing machine to alter them myself. I was also paid to do the same for many of my classmates.”

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“Another thing I was paid to do in college was – erase remarks from conduct sheets. My sister Samantha and I had a talent for scraping off remarks with a blade and an eraser. We would sit on our back bench and do all that for vada pavs, samosas & pepsi colas.”

My first paid job – It was when I was working in the back office for a gaming company – Ivy Comptech .They were having their annual awards called The Ivies. I was asked to do every single performer’s makeup and there were about ten acts in total. I ended up doing 23 girls’ makeup and hair. To top it all off, I was the last act. I sang the finale song – Elton John’s ‘Something about the way you look tonight.’

I got paid 500 rupees in all, along with a used kajal pencil, 2 semi-used lipsticks from Revlon, and 2 used Revlon foundations.

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FCUK in my wardrobe.

When I was a teenager, I used to wear tee shirts with silly one-liners, bought by my friends and relatives from abroad. I would only want the ones with scandalous one-liners like “too busy to FCUK.”

It was a TOTAL LIE.

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“I prefer women’s clothing due to the non-availability of my size, fit, and also because I feel more comfortable being androgynous. Also, what I shop depends on my mood. It’s like sometimes I love to sport a beard, other times-false eyelashes…but more the beard. At present, I like loose clothing and I think women’s clothing offers that without losing elegance.”

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Elton has worked for Vogue, GQ, International Traveller, M, Marie Claire, Grazia and is excited about his first Hindi feature film ‘I Am’ directed by Onir that will release this September.

Click here to see some of his work.

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Neville is 21, has a Bachelor’s degree in Literature and plans to do a post graduation in journalism or creative writing. He has been active in theatre since he was 16. He also occasionally blogs for Fashion tv here – Young and Stylish.

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“The two biggest influences on my style are Elton and my friend Alisha. They both taught me to open my mind and dress the way I want to without worrying about what people think. They gave me the little extra boost in confidence that I needed. I think I bought my first pair of skinny jeans a good two years before I met Alisha and I didn’t have the guts to wear them until I met her.”

“I’m quite petite and most of the time I don’t find my size in the men’s range of most brands. I don’t like v-necks and sleeveless tops so I wouldn’t buy that from anywhere. However, if I like a tee I would buy it even if it happens to be from the women’s section.”

“The cheapest purchase I ever made was shoe laces. Ten bucks for a pair from the mochi down by my house. I’ve about 10 pairs of shoe laces. A neon green pair, a deep green pair, a purple pair, a double sided yellow and black pair, a red pair with black stars on it, a rainbow pair, and my personal favourite – white laces with glittery silver threads in them. They look gorgeous with just a little bit of shimmer – not too much to make it tacky or distasteful and not too little to make it go unnoticed.”

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All clothes are from FCUK, Elton’s shoes are from MBK Mall, Bangkok for about 350Rs. Brooches are from SPLASH, Hyderabad for about 400-500Rs. Shoelaces in the picture are Neville’s.

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This post was inspired by FCUK’s ‘The Man’ campaign..

An idea for a campaign

I know this is a bit late. FCUK’s “the man” campaign was launched in February sometime asking men to man up. Few months ago, when i shot A free man this is what I wanted to do – create an analogy.

The purpose of this analogy is to present the idea of fashion brands hiring men like these as models, transforming them into aspirational figures inspired by the accounts of their difficult lives and in return providing them with an alternate source of income.

I am tired of looking at billboards with grinning celebrities. I think it would be fresh & different for fashion brands to deviate from the regular stuff that they are doing & have been doing for years. Using these men could bring some character and real life to their dull campaigns.

What if this does not work? Well..fear of failure is never a reason not to try something. Right?

“Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at.”

A sleepy thought that turned into a shoe

Karan says, “It was just a sleepy midnight thought. I got up the next morning and immediately started to work on these. It was exciting to make them as I had all these crazy colorful printed socks and executing the idea just to show them off turned out to be perfect.”

Socks from NEXT, London.

Material used : Plastic, synthetic leather, leather.

Who else makes shoes like these?
Melissa shoes for Ministry of Fashion involved some irregular cut work and plastic. Nida Mahmood designs shoes for women that involve cut work, PVC & graphic prints and so does Stuart Weitzman. In fact, Weitzman’s 2010 Spring/summer footwear collection has very similar shoes sans the plastic but those are again for women.
I have not seen shoes like these before…at least not on men. Has anyone?