yellow, pastels, men

My friend F. (who already deserves a tag of her own on this blog) asked for some diversity. She's a great believer in diversity, and is troubled by the lack thereof in the fashion world. 'Where are the curvy models?' she asks. 'And the male models?' (And the male curvy models? And the middle-aged models? And the male pot-bellied middle-aged models? And don't even get me started on the racial diversity!). My answer is that the problem with diversity isn't its non existence but its low visibility. There are models of all kinds, but the white skinny girls in their twenties are more popular in virtue of being more glamorized. They dominate the uber fashion magazines, that's true, but let's not pretend that our consciousness and body image is shaped principally by them. Beyonce is more popular than Adriana Lima. But we'll get to that.

Our first step towards diversity will be Armani's Spring 2011 collection for men. There's a whole men's fashion industry out there, but I'm not prepared to write about that. Nor do I think I owe a 'diverse' post for the sake of diversity, since this blog is about what I like, whether or not it happens to be on skinny white women in their twenties (and sometimes it happens to be). So, I like the use of yellow in Armani's Spring 2011 men collection:



I like the yellow detail (which eludes categorization) on the suits:







Now notice the belt:



The knitted vest over the tight tee:



The discrete but still visibly stylish scarf, and the wonderfully tailored jacket which doesn't look like it's trying too hard:



The ton-sur-ton casual chic:



The magic jacquard jacket which can dress up any trousers (and I'm guessing even shorts):



And finally, what Armani overview without a beautiful, honest to God double-breasted jacket suit?



I'd only add that I'd gladly wear any of this myself.