More Hats, Less Pants
July 17, 2016 4:57 PM   Subscribe

'2026' was conceived to challenge heteronormative attitudes to self-expression through fashion. It imagines what menswear might look like in 10 years’ time through the use of fabrics rescued from rubbish skips and thrift shops in Johannesburg and customised into new garments. . . suggestive of a more liberated manifestation of masculinity that encourages a freedom of expression. 

“I wanted to create a utopia where you can be whatever you want to be, without emphasis on masculinity or sexuality,” Mr. Kamara said last week ... (NYT)

“The one thing I will never do is disempower a person in my imagery, I always try to empower people. I will never try to make them look like any stereotype that people may have about us here” – Kristin-Lee Moolman
posted by hilaryjade (31 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Many of these outfits make sense, or seem like possible weird futures, because clothing is strange. But those movement-inhibiting winter gloves with a gown? I have a hard time believing that could happen.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:03 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Nothing says "not a stereotype" like black guys in sagging jeans. She's really breaking paradigms!
posted by jpe at 5:25 PM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


I didn't know how much I would personally respond to the idea of wearing a sports jersey/tshirt as a skirt but I apparently want to do this very much if my *gasp* at the first picture is any indicator.

(The whole thing is interesting but that felt personally revelatory.)

Thanks for this post.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 5:30 PM on July 17, 2016


For what it's worth, the sagging jeans look seemed the one most likely to actually exist, even though sagging has mostly gone out of style by now.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:32 PM on July 17, 2016


Wow, I love those kimono shaped robes. There are performative elements to those pictures I didn't love (elbow length ski gloves, I'm looking at you) but I really enjoyed the series.
posted by glitter at 5:48 PM on July 17, 2016


I like the obvious repurposing in some of the looks - like the sports jersey skirt MCMikeNamara mentions.

The sixth outfit down in the first link looks like something Prince might have worn - the jacket and pants in a surprising fabric.

I also like the showcasing of sock varieties.
posted by hilaryjade at 5:52 PM on July 17, 2016


*sigh* And I'm still going to be wearing black T-shirts and black jeans.
posted by happyroach at 6:10 PM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


Gypsy Sport and, to a lesser extent, Hood By Air are already doing this and have the style quotient here trumped by a long shot. Gypsy Sport especially has this beat in terms of a sense of real gender-fuck menace. This all looks a little pirate-y, more swashbuckling swish than any kind of street derived fashion, let alone style.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 6:29 PM on July 17, 2016


And I'm still going to be wearing black T-shirts and black jeans.

This is basically how I dress, as well. It doesn't have a name, but if it did, it would be "Goth who couldn't be arsed."
posted by infinitywaltz at 6:33 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


I wear black on the outside 'cause black is how I feel on the inside all that was clean in the washing basket?
posted by glitter at 6:48 PM on July 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


must be nice not having to think about your clothes as one of the few performative elements of your identity that you have any control over when it comes to what other people will assume about you
posted by runt at 7:03 PM on July 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Can I wear leggings in 2026? Because they seem comfortable as fuck and I'm super jealous of all y'all ladies.
posted by curious nu at 7:40 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


For what it's worth, the sagging jeans look seemed the one most likely to actually exist, even though sagging has mostly gone out of style by now.

Saggy jeans are still in full-effect on the streets of Oakland, CA.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 7:41 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


Those white gloves are awesome.
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:15 PM on July 17, 2016


damn fashion, you incomprehensible
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:24 PM on July 17, 2016


*sigh* And I'm still going to be wearing black T-shirts and black jeans.

This is basically how I dress, as well. It doesn't have a name, but if it did, it would be "Goth who couldn't be arsed."

must be nice not having to think about your clothes as one of the few performative elements of your identity that you have any control over when it comes to what other people will assume about you

The notion that someone who chooses to wear all black most of the time is assuming that their choices don’t matter is not in any way a given, and is in fact quite performative.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:14 PM on July 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


Can I wear leggings in 2026? Because they seem comfortable as fuck and I'm super jealous of all y'all ladies.

We can hope.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:15 PM on July 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


It's nice to see someone find another use for concho belts.
posted by emjaybee at 9:43 PM on July 17, 2016


I would never actually be able to wear anything like this myself, for multiple reasons, but I'm very pleased by the picture with the fire (3rd from last).
posted by Spathe Cadet at 10:23 PM on July 17, 2016


Yeah, sagging jeans are not only still a thing in NYC, they even somehow survived the transition to skinny jeans. So some of the yout' are walking around with skinny jeans belted below their asses, sometimes ones that are just too short in the leg, as if the way to handle too-short pants was to keep the ankles covered but not the butt.

What this means for how they walk is a weird stride-reducing pivot from the waist. Like a cowboy whose leather chaps shrunk in the wash, and can't even achieve bowleggedness.

I often wish someone would explain sagging pants to me from the wearer's perspective, because I am totally mystified about their meaning to people other than church ladies.
posted by gusandrews at 10:34 PM on July 17, 2016 [5 favorites]


Some of these have a nice piratey look to them. I approve.
posted by aubilenon at 11:15 PM on July 17, 2016


In DC sagging is still completely the chocolate cel of most young men and boys, but the jeans have also shifted to skinny jeans.
posted by OmieWise at 4:11 AM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


I really like the asymmetric orange kimono over tight white leggings look.
Though it would be better with actual boots instead of slip ons and long socks.
(Oh, I just realised that the orange kimono is not assymetrical, just being pulled off to one side. Booo.

I think if I were to design FUTRUREFASHIONS! it would all be tight form fitting(ish) clothes, adorned with ridiculous flowing bits on top.*
Also the tight underclothes bits would be relatively practical. Perhaps padded out in places to allow comfortable sitting, and many pockets or at least storage methods. (Maybe pouches?)



*Retrospectively I realise I've just designed fremen clothes...
Still suits and Jubba cloaks all round!
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 5:04 AM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Caftans for everyone.
posted by emjaybee at 6:45 AM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


Can I wear leggings in 2026? Because they seem comfortable as fuck and I'm super jealous of all y'all ladies.

You can wear them this year, and I would recommend it!

Even as someone who fled masculinity in a wild panic, I still very much want to see the world of men's fashion blown wide open, and seeing this stuff out in the wild would be positively delightful.
posted by WCWedin at 8:30 AM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


What's up with the mega-gloves? Will global warming have made everyday objects too hot to touch with one's bare hands?

Because, even then? No.
posted by the sobsister at 10:44 AM on July 18, 2016


The notion that someone who chooses to wear all black most of the time is assuming that their choices don’t matter is not in any way a given, and is in fact quite performative.

I didn't make this clear at all but I was speaking in the context of clothing for PoCs and just how much more important it is for people like me to dress and code according to norms because everything else about us says 'you don't belong.' especially for art pieces like the one linked, the racial component to clothing can be a really exhausting and self-expression denying onus. that's most of the point that I see this art piece making: putting bodies that tend to be hypermasculinized into feminine/androgynous clothing in order to break from gender normative and racially codified norms

wearing all black is a kind of stylized decision that I can only see certain subsets of the population being able to pull off, those who don't mind not fitting in and who don't mind standing out. for regular non-artistic PoCs like me, there's not really a choice. you follow the mainstream with the things you can control because otherwise you're automatically shunted into an identity you can't control
posted by runt at 4:31 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


You can wear them this year, and I would recommend it!

Even as someone who fled masculinity in a wild panic, I still very much want to see the world of men's fashion blown wide open, and seeing this stuff out in the wild would be positively delightful.


I'll have to see how I'm feeling when the cooler weather rolls around. =)
posted by curious nu at 5:54 PM on July 18, 2016


I'm on board with men in leggings on the following conditions:
- that dudes wash their leggings between wearings--something many women fail to do;
- that men wear actual leggings made out of stretch fabric and not footless tights, and;
- that bros wear tunics over their leggings.

If Jon Snow becomes a fashion icon for men, I am 100% on board with the men-in-leggings thing.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:40 AM on July 19, 2016


The "fire" photo is the one that most reminds me of Ruby Rhod from The 5th Element.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:42 AM on July 19, 2016


Skater guy on bus was rocking some leggings I've seen around (black, purple, white diamonds-ish pattern) and some shorts or some kind of wrap. I'm sold.
posted by curious nu at 8:49 PM on July 22, 2016


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