The work of fashion designer, Ludovic De Saint Sernin has put a very refreshing point of view on gender. Saint Sernin presents menswear in a way that I haven’t seen before. His clothes portray men in a way that contrasts masculine hegemony, exhibiting them as objects of desire, a role that is usually put upon women. In this image the figure is shot from behind, its face remains mysterious, along with long hair and a slim figure that blurs the gender of the character. One could see how he borrows elements from menswear – the buttondown character of the shirt along with the cropped hem and the balloon-like shape, which creates a cut that appears more feminine. The pants are also quite irregular in their tight cut and the eyelet opening at the back, referencing fetish wear, embracing the idea of otherness in terms of homoeroticism. All of it is done through a filter of gentleness and soft colors, presenting fashion that approaches men that do not conform to social constructs of gender but are interested in playing with them, troubling them and still feel sexual and confident. The beauty of Ludovic De Saint Sernin’s stance on fashion is that he does it all with a very wearable outcome, looking at the nuances of gender in fashion and using them in a minimalist way. On page 39 of Fashion and Cultural Studies Susan Kaiser writes: ” If we begin to interpret difference not as something that is apart from our own identities, but rather as a kind of entanglement, we can begin to imagine more openness to difference and the discovery of unexpected commonalities” – Saint Sernin does exactly that, and this is why I feel he is so important in today’s fashion. He celebrates the entanglement in gender and presents it in a manner that is personal, non-flamboyant and relatable due to its attention to details and craft.
