I would like to start with this small incident:
Once at a cocktail party at Chelsea Piers, NY on a Sunday night, an annual Toys for Tots charity drive that draws a crowd of mostly gay men, the designer Peter Som wryly observed that there were so many designers, retail executives and publicists present that if the pier collapsed, “there would be no fashion industry tomorrow”.
 Two months earlier, Tara Subkoff, the agent provocateur behind the label Imitation of Christ, had remarked during a public forum, with a great deal of irritation, that fashion “is a gay man’s profession.”
Career in Fashion Designing is very enticing but when it comes to men,it is commented as gay!Why can’t a man pursue his dreams if he loves arts, is interested in designing clothes and has talent and creativity? Should he be mocked disrespectfully as GAY? This has streamlined in less number of man entering into the fashion industry.
I guess this is why we wonder fashion industry as female-dominated.However,it’s not true.There are alot of male designers who have made their way all up to the top.Satya Paul, Manish Arora, Sabyaschi Mukherjee, Manish Malhotra, Rohit Bal, Hemant Trivedi, Shahab Durazi, J.J Walya, Shantanu & Nikhil and Krishna Mehta to name a few.
Meanwhile, in America, male designers have taken home the Womenswear Award 13 out of 18 times. Ironically, a woman has never won the Menswear Award.
The male dominance of the fashion industry is widely acknowledged yet strange to the extend, given the fact that dressing up is an overwhelmingly female pursuit. Though it is not quite right to measure the success of a person in any profession on basis of sex, fashion is still one of the most antagonistic profession for men. Nobody would want to get mocked and known as gay and that is what forces a man to step back in pursuing as FD, in my opinion. Eventually, the Fashion Industry turns out to be recognized as a Woman domain!
 – Vatsal Doshi
Â
3 Comments