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NORMAL – Uwe, a human of the male gender, standing next to some motorbikes. Uwe dressed as himself.<\/p>\n NORMAL – Uwe, a human of the male gender, standing next to some motorbikes. Uwe dressed as himself.<\/p>\n
Text – Hans Bussert<\/strong> Photography – Tim Bruening<\/strong> Styling – Josepha Rodriguez<\/strong><\/p>\n Above is a picture of Uwe. He is a 35-year-old magazine-publishing, facial hair-wearing, robust, funny, philosophical and otherwise normal man who lives in Hamburg in the late-Modern era. But is fashion, with its fetish for all things young and boyish, making a mockery of\u00a0 him \u2013 and therefore, all men? Sleek attempts to discover the truth, in this experiment in style\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Fast cars, stirred drinks and impeccably smart suits \u2013 the great male narrative still does a wonderful job of luring many of us into buying that three-piece suit or those monk straps we\u2019ve been eyeing at \u201cMr Fitzroy\u2019s Haberdashery\u201d for a while now. Yet there seems to be this desire by some \u2013 namely a horde of fashion designers \u2013 to make us look as if we were back on our way to the womb. Why exactly is it that a huge part of contemporary fashion is apparently addressing us as three- to 16-years-olds, rather than as grown men? Looking at some of this season\u2019s offerings for example, one can get the impression that dressing like a toddler on the school run, or like a choirboy late from football practice, is an appropriate get-up for any man wanting to appear fashionable. But are they? Can any man simply put on one of those outfits and stride among his peers and be in fashion? And if not, why would anyone want us to wear that kind of nonsense?<\/p>\n There are many theories as to why fashion looks the way it does \u2013 and some will even find their way into this report. The experiment is a form of empirical research when it comes to dissecting what humans make of their need to dress. Each morning we have to face the streets with what we, only a few minutes ago, were able to compose out of our wardrobes and drawers \u2013 it would seem to be enough of an experiment for most. Or maybe it has to do with fashion\u2019s fickle nature: no look will ever feel the same because fashion always depends on mood, time of the day and context. But whatever it is that has led the scholars to remain stylishly tied to their studies, we will not succumb. We will go into the field for this.<\/p>\n In our case the field is the autumnal streets of Hamburg, which also form the natural habitat of our test person, Uwe Jens Bermeitinger. Here the editor-in-chief of Tissue magazine lives in the neighbourhood of Karolinenviertel, where he enjoys some recognition as a man of our times. When we meet Uwe on the night before our experiment, he is dressed in his normal attire: a blue worker-style jacket, grey T-shirt, grey pants, and some off-brand running shoes. One of his \u201cmore casual\u201d looks, as he assures us. We will use this as a proof sample for later reference. Please also note the confidence \u2013 and the width! \u2013 of the stance he performs in front of the graffitied walls of his house. Even his gesturing seems to scream: \u201cWhat can I do? I just have that certain Je ne sais quoi!\u201d How will he feel once he\u2019s dressed in this season\u2019s more boyish looks? Can some fashion designer\u2019s childhood fantasy break Uwe\u2019s manly stance towards life? We were about to find that out.<\/p>\n At 10am the next morning we are greeted by a different Uwe. In a pair of shorts, knee-high tennis socks and a slip-over shirt under a preppy blazer, he looks very Thom Browne-ish. And while this is more or less acceptable in the fashion capitals of the world, we wonder how this man-boy will go about this Saturday\u2019s chores in sartorially less advanced Hamburg. Following Uwe straight to the market, one notices that at each stall he is met with some smiles; Uwe himself starts smiling and laughing a lot. Is that the boyishness of the look? It does look frivolous and, yes, gay. Does gay styling bring joy to the world and thus make its wearer\u2019s heart a little lighter too? If so, wouldn\u2019t we have to thank all couturiers who helped us face the challenges of our times \u2013 unemployment, civil wars, the extinction of species \u2013 by taking us back to some campy kindergarden first?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Surely no one would go so far, but one has to admit that those designs do add some flavour to the otherwise quite restricted palette of male dressing. Barbara Vinken, who recently published her book \u201cAngezogen\u201d (\u201cDressed\u201d) to wide acclaim, even says that there is no such thing as male fashion anymore. She argues that the suit, the only socially acceptable dress for men of a certain standing, hasn\u2019t really changed since 1830. Therefore fashion, when understood as the coming and going of trends, can only be found in those looks that do away with the suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the suit is the uniform for any man of whom society requires some accountability, the next look has become the uniform for every 20- to 35-year-old who feels kind of edgy but fears the tight grip of life \u2013 and possibly the cut from daddy\u2019s wallet \u2013 more than anything. Having fulfilled his shopping dut-ies, Uwe is now dressed in a beanie, a biker jacket and some checkered shirt over a printed T-shirt. To say the least, Uwe is totally uncomfortable with himself: \u201cI feel like an asshole,\u201d he says of this phase in the experiment. He instantly gets in a bad mood and only half-jokingly ponders whether someone will physically assault him.\u00a0<\/p>\n But one cannot really blame some designer locked away in his far-from-reality atelier for this. Yes, it is true that the craftsmen of high fashion and the high street alike have a thing with youth culture and the various looks it developed, but the Peter Pans of this world have all too happily embraced those styles themselves. In a state of YOLO, no one needs a designer to look his possible worst. So while this outfit is the most normal, it is also the most impossible for any self-respecting man to wear.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n When Georg Simmel published his \u201cPhilosophy of Fashion\u201d in 1905, the sumptuary laws, once established to keep the lower classes from wearing the nobleman\u2019s frocks, were long since history. But as far as Simmel was concerned, those rules were still somehow intact, as he understood fashion as a means of adapting to one\u2019s peers and seeking distinction from the lower classes. Trends would then sort of trickle down from high to low. Where better to test that theory than at Hamburg\u2019s Neuer Wall, one of the city\u2019s posher shopping streets. It is just after lunchtime and Uwe now wears what the experts call \u201cluxury streetwear\u201d: a Louis Vuitton pullover and some Dries van Noten sweatpants styled with a camouflage hat and a shiny blouson jacket. In short: the affluent types are not amused. Funnily enough, the ladies even seem to be hiding behind their scarves, which are by the very same brand that knits Uwe\u2019s sweater. Don\u2019t they recognise their kin? Apparently not \u2013 and why should they? The cues designer fashion takes from the street \u2013 in contrast to Simmel\u2019s trickling down theory \u2013 and which do find their way onto the catwalks, are seldom emulated by those with power.\u00a0<\/p>\n Worked up by the effects his gangsta-with-a-payday-loan had on Hamburg\u2019s well-off, Uwe decides to spend his afternoon parading around in this get-up some more. The frivolity-phenomenon we witnessed with the man-boy look now seems to be at play as well, as we can see him posing in front of patrol cars and in general behaving rather childishly. He\u2019s still our man, still our Uwe and there\u2019s obviously lots of irony involved, but one can\u2019t help but wonder about the infantilising effects of that style. Hip-hop fashion does make men look like teddy bears after all. \u201cI don\u2019t wanna look like a young \u2019un, so why not go back even further?\u201d, the logic seems to go. No wonder its advocates develop a fondness for long steely weapons too.<\/p>\n Later, at night, it\u2019s \u201cback again\u201d (and a bit beyond) for our control sample. After a whole day of youth-ful, boyish, and even toddler-style fashion, Uwe changes into a contemporary look that takes him a bit closer than he would normal-ly go to the Mis-ters, Sirs and Herren of this world. It comes as no surprise then, that upon arriving at the trendy \u201ctechno shed\u201d Kraniche, Uwe is a little anxious that his friends will laugh at him for what we want to call \u201cThe Gent\u201d look. He assumes that a Prada coat, paisley shirt, flannel pants and monks might seem \u201coff\u201d in this location, but \u2013 alas \u2013 no one takes any notice. It is just Uwe who apparently feels the need to add a slightly more cocky air to the confident manners he regained so quickly. Why is that?<\/p>\n Much like Simmel, Thorstein Veblen argues that we dress to impress. The sociologist, who in 1899 wrote his \u201cTheory of the Leisure Class\u201d, called it a little differently (\u201cconspicuous consumption\u201d to be precise) but nonetheless, fashion for him was a way of showing others what social class, or stratum, one belonged to. The higher up the food-chain, the more show-off, or wasteful, one\u2019s clobber. It sure does work here: as the look is unexpectedly appropriate \u2013 and as such not the object of ridicule \u2013 it manages to bring out Uwe\u2019s inner \u201cbig daddy\u201d.<\/p>\n So the question remains: who would want to wear clothes that make us climb down life\u2019s ladder not just a few but almost all steps? Yes, these looks might be very fashionable \u2013 in the sense that they are not a uniform \u2013 but for any grown man they are inappropriate at most, if not ridiculous. The comfort of toddler-style pants quickly vanishes when laughed at by your bank manager. Dressing-down, nowadays the most common fashion advice, only works to some degree. If one takes it too far, those jolly looks will even make him behave like a coy schoolboy or like one of those ne\u2019er do wells from the suburbs, just like they did with Uwe. Something no man could truly want for himself \u2013 even if we as a society have become very forgiving.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The desire to dress up on the other hand, often brings out a male stereotype which is no longer in chime with our postmodern concepts of gender roles and the equality of sexes. It also feels very stuffy. This clearly cannot be the goal either. What\u2019s a man to do then?\u00a0<\/p>\n That question, which is asked in front of wardrobes and changing rooms the world over, can only be answered from case to case, from man to man. But it should never be answered with blind faith in everything that contemporary fashion has to offer.<\/p>\n NORMAL – Uwe, a human of the male gender, standing next to some motorbikes. Uwe dressed as himself. Text – Hans Bussert Photography – Tim Bruening Styling – Josepha Rodriguez Above is a picture of Uwe. He is a 35-year-old magazine-publishing, facial hair-wearing, robust, funny, philosophical and otherwise normal man who lives in Hamburg in…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,1281,1282,93,1283,1200,1284,1285],"class_list":["post-12816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fashion","tag-hans-bussert","tag-josepha-rodriguez","tag-menswear","tag-print","tag-sleek-magazine-40","tag-tim-bruening","tag-uwe-jens-bermeitinger"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/7_Sleek_Tim_Bruening-681x1024.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
BOYISH – Uwe attempts to dress fashionably like a choirboy or Boy Scout, as he buys some fruit and vegetables. Shirt: Hien Le, Shorts: Uwe’s own, Sleveless sweater: Dries van Noten, Jacket: Tiger of Sweden, Backpack, socks and shoes: vintage<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/5_Sleek_Tim_Bruening.jpg\")
YEAH BWOY – Uwe rocks a youthful hip-hop look in front of a car belonging to Hamburg’s finest (note: do not try this at home). Bomber jacket: H&M, Jogging pants: Dries van Noten, Leopard-prnt cap: H&M, Sneakers: ADIDAS Vintage<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/2_Sleek_Tim_Bruening-681x1024.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
MANLY – This tweedy outfit lends gravitas to Uwe as he takes an important business call outside Hamburg’s trendy Kraniche nitespot. Silk shirt: Dries van Noten, Sweater: Calvin Klein, Pants: Diesel Black Gold, Coat: Prada, Shoes: vintage<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/3_Sleek_Tim_Bruening.jpg\")
FIERCE – Uwe sports a fashionable luxury sweater by Louis Vuitton, while channeling the spirit of a big cat. Raaaarrgh! Sweater: Louis Vuitton<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"