Fashion Brands by Mark Tungate

Doing a bit of reading for my dissertation today and read into a chapter about menswear in the book Fashion Brands- some quotes for thought/ that were of interest...

Chapter 15: Targeted Male.

"Sean Connery, Micheal Caine and Steve McQueen. Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart. Maybe a hint of James Dean and early Brando. Sinatra when he was recording for Capitol. Al Pacino in Scarface. The guys from Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. These are the sort of me we would like to emiluate, if we had the looks or the charisma. We can, at least aspire to the clothes- which is why adult men's fashion tends towards the conservative. Most of us don't care what the male models on the catwalks are wearing; we'd much rather resemble our icons."

I liked this quote as it kind of puts my mind in a bit of ease as through my unit I stated that mens fashion didn't really move or change much so they need references to things that interest them to keep them attracted and interested- in this case it is film stars that most men would aspire to be.

"Men who buy GQ are buying into a certain world, just as the women who buy Vogue are buying into that world...Fashion is part of it, but we're also covering cars, sex, food ,travel... In any case, it's fair to say that men don't buy fashion they buy clothes...."

This also reassured me that menswear is more about the lifestyle- grabbing that lifestyle and making sure it is spot on is definately the key to a good publication.

"Men are concerned about status and they like to be confident. So if they feel good in a certain item, if their wife or girlfriend approves, and it gets a nod of appreciation from their colleagues, they're likely to go back for more."

Also proving that men are more influenced from feeling accepted rather than being noticed.