Thank you David Byrne for inspiring me to buy an oversized pantsuit from Dorothee Bis when I was on a year-abroad in Paris in the 80’s. The Talking Heads were the band of the moment - unconventional and completely original. I loved your super sized gray suit. And I loved mine even more. It was a splurge and an attempt to dress au courant. I was wearing a huge friggin' suit… Did I get the right size?
PS I wore it with a collared shirt buttoned to the top from Agnes b. And oxford lace-up shoes bought on Boulevard Saint-Michel.
Flash forward to the Spring / Summer ‘25 shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris that just ended. One of the major trends is that familiar silhouette of the Oversized Jacket. Even though menswear (for women) is on constant rotation of recurring trends, each iteration is unique to the designer and house code.
Let me first say that runway shows express a point of view, an attitude, and a direction. The messaging is often exaggerated to drive a point home. Hair and makeup brings that “je ne sais quoi”. Show notes and press release sound bites provide background, a story, or a reference from an inspirational trip. Many designers including Michael Kors often have movies or iconic women of style setting the scene of their collections. In Spring 2022, as Russia was invading Ukraine, Balenciaga’s Demna “re-enacted” his family’s traumatic departure from Georgia in 2008 during the Russian invasion. The harrowing trek was recreated on the runway. Demna’s point of view was personal. The clothing took a back seat.
Balenciaga Fall 2022 ready-to-wear
A quick look back…
The oversized trend first appeared about a century ago in women’s fashion, a reaction to the restricted clothing of corsets and hobble skirts of the Edwardian era. With the movement for equal rights for women, also came the freedom of looser dresses often belted around the hips. This was the “Roaring 20’s”, a term referring to the post WWI prosperity, the jazz age, prohibition and lots of dancing.
At the same time, it was the era of Dior’s New Look. The small waist had returned along with tailored jackets, pencil skirts and the traditional housewife.
And then there were men’s zoot suits. Worn in the working class neighborhoods by minority communities, these suits had massive shoulder pads and peg leg pants - a continuation of the Harlem dance hall dress trend from the mid 30’s when the tapered pant leg was a safety measure to avoid jitterbugging couples from a twirling mishap. The suits were bought in bigger sizes and then tailored for a dandy-ish look. This indeed was a trend as Harold Fox, big band trumpeter and clothier said that came “right off the street and out of the ghetto.”
In June 1943, there were the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles between U.S. servicemen and Mexican American in their zoot suits. At a time when racial hostility bubbled over into riots across the country, the servicemen, along with other white aggressors, beat and stripped young men of color wearing zoot suits under the pretense that it was “unpatriotic” to wear so much fabric during wartime rationing. Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man, described the suits as a way of “refusing to be ignored”, while American historian Kathy Peiss says that, “fashion can be a way of claiming space for yourself.” These riots are one of many historical examples of the violent blowback people of color face when they refuse to be ignored and claim their rightful space. Thus, zoot suits became an iconic and inspiring uniform of the time.
Now to the 80’s. Everyone has strong opinions of the 80’s. You either love it or you hate it.
Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons is one of the strongest voices in the fashion industry. Her oversized and extreme fashion from her “Invisible Clothes” show in 2017 was about the contradiction of being bigger than life and yet lost and invisible at the same time. An example is one of her supersized creations appearing almost flat from the side, nearly invisible illustrating her message of being seen and not being seen.* (Robin Givhan wrote of the Comme des Garcons show for the Washington Post).
So how did it happen that David Byrne wore a giant gray suit on his “Stop Making Sense” tour in 1983. “It was an inspiration I had when I was in Japan and seeing a lot of traditional Japanese theater.” He wanted a front-facing outline in a rectangle shape (i.e. the giant gray suit). “I wanted my head to appear smaller, and the easiest way to do that was to make my body bigger.”
Clearly menswear is in my DNA. Collared shirts and jackets make me feel organized. Personally I prefer a snug shoulder with one of my reworked shirts with it’s crystal buttons. The sparkle is enough of a statement for me. Although I did wear a men’s tie the other day at the office and no one said a thing.
xxSasha