Dried Onion: Re-Imagining Silk For Men
- F7 | LIFESTYLE by Kelechi Iwumene.
- May 23, 2015
- 6 min read
It was a week day evening and my brother and I found ourselves at Golders Green Tube Station. We were returning home from a successful African comedy show that displayed some of the finest and sharpest comedians in the industry. Some were even flown in from abroad to participate in the evening shenanigans. As my brother and I discussed whether Nigerian comedians are the most funniest of the continent, I noticed a sharply dressed young man a few feet away from us, on the platform, waiting for a train. We were both heading for Central London. The suit he was wearing was impeccably tailored; it was a single breasted, royal blue ensemble finished off with tan brown brogues and neat haircut. My eyes kept getting drawn to the exuberance of the colour. Eventually, my brother plucked up the courage to ask him where he bought the suit from and he replied that the fabric was tailor made for him in one of his father’s factories.
As we boarded the train, he told us of his entreperneurial ventures. He began organising undergradutes for student-led events. The money he generated from these operations was then focused in building a product that sounded so simple but proded at a niche in the mens clothing market; velvet t-shirts. He talked of the logistical problems he encountered when first producing the t-shirts, but highlighted how whenever he wore it outdoors, dozens of people in a club would approach him to ask where he got the shirt from. He would respond by giving them his business card. The three of us got off at Waterloo Station and headed towards Elephant & Castle. When I asked what his plans were for the evening, he replied that he was celebrating his 21st birthday. I was shocked; how could such a young man achieve so much in such a short space of time? You could tell he was young by the content of his speech; his mannerisms and the way he explained his outlook on life also had a streak of naivety in it. But one thing that shone through was his bravery and ability to take risks. One of the risks he took was dropping out of university early despite his parents telling him not to. As we were reaching the shopping centre, we departed. He left us with his card and exhorted that Elephant & Castle is the next big place for property investment adding that he was looking of buy a flat in the area shortly. I was stunned. It is incredible what a marketable idea and a whole lot of determination can do. It got me thinking about what other fabrics could be reimagined for the modern man. From listening to the young entrepreneur in the bright blue suit, I considered luxury fabrics. Silk get tugging for my attention.
Silk was originally cultivated in ancient China. Lady His-Ling-Shih was the wife of mythical Yellow Emperor who introduced silkworm rearing and the invention of the loom. The silk production known as sericulture was formed. Bombyx Mori is a blind, flightless moth that lays 500 eggs; from one ounce of eggs comes about 30,000 worms which eat a ton of mulberry leaves and produce twelve pounds of raw silk. To produce high quality silk, there are two conditions that need to be considered; the first condition is to prevent the silkworm from hatching out into a moth and the second is perfecting the diet of the silkworms. To loosen and extract the tightly woven filaments, the silkworm cacoon is steamed, baked and placed in hot water. From here, the silk threads are woven into cloth or used as embroidery. These actions kill the silkworm which raises a lot of ethical issues about the nature of sericulture. It made me flinch a bit knowing that these poor little creatures were being cooked to death but there are alternative ways of extracting the silk filaments. The Ethical Silk Company exclusively work with an Indian Factory called Ahimsa Silk; ‘ahimsa’ is a term meaning compassion or ‘not to injure.’
Silk production is a practice that was kept a secret by the Chinese for 2000 years. The fabric was originally reserved for the emperor and his dignitaries. Imperial guards were ordered to execute those caught smuggling the secrets of sericulture to other countries. I can understand why China worked so hard in keeping the monopoly on silk; the fabric was as valuable as gold. During the Han Dynasty, silk turned from being an industrial material into an absolute value in itself. Farmers paid their taxes in grain and silk. Values were calculaed in lengths of silk and became a currency used to trade in foreign countries. Silk found its way so thoroughly into Chinese culture that 230 out of the 5000 most common characters of the mandarin alphabet have it as their key. Transporting silk out of China became such a militant operation that the Byzantine Emperor Justinian ordered two Nestorian monks to smuggle out silkworms in hollow bamboo sticks! Silk eventually found its way into the Western culture. In the epic poem The Odyssey of Homer, Penelope describes her husband in disguise as wearing a material as smooth and glistening ‘like the gleam over the skin of a dried onion.’ I find this description fascinating, and a great way to look at the fabric when trying to redefine it for the 21st century man. It’s almost as if the fabric adopts a new, ruddy kind of beauty that is familiar yet all the more strange. The description sounds odd because the comparision to vegetation is natural and slightly plain; it challenges our initial ideas about silk by stripping it of its gloss and veneer.
So I pose the question: when you think of silk, what is the first thing that pops into your mind? Is it the image of a pensioner billionaire getting ready for bedtime? Is it the image of a dressing gown worn by a female victim in an American cop drama? Or is it the image of a blanket? Why O why do we attribute such a luxurious fabric to homeware and only homeware. Something that was once worn by some of the most powerful men in history is confined to the wardrobe of the very few. The Industrial Revolution and the production of cheaper textiles like cotton is partly to blame but I also believe that silk has fallen victim to the wrong kind of marketing. What we wear as human beings should reflect how we think of ourselves and those around us. Wearing silk should make us feel like rulers, paticularly for men. Luxury is not exclusively feminine; when we truly understand this, we allow menswear to creatively flourish without the tropes of gender labelling. Real men don’t wear leather; they wear silk!
Dolce & Gabbana’s SS15 collection carried a ‘Matador’ theme. Many of the garments were inspired by the mystical spanish tradition of bull chasing. The fashion powerhouse showcased bullfighter jackets and flamenco gowns peppered with baroque brightly coloured flowers and religious imagery. The mens collection in paticular was so well executed; silk jackets with heavy black embroidery were outfitted with cropped trousers; D&G traditional gold was swapped for darker jewel tones. My favourites were the two and three-piece suits in pink, teal and silver. But what also shone was the sporty vests and oversized silk t-shirts screen-printed with charging bulls and polka dots. D&G injected a fresh youthfulness into the fabric that I had not seen before. High fashion are already doing what I hoped would happen! Reimagining silk for men starts from the top and filters to the bottom. Whilst other fashion labels are channelling minimalism and the free spiritedness of the 1970’s D&G have decided to monopolise on a piece of history filled with brave matador men clad in silk-like-armour, taming dangerous bulls in packed out arenas. Real men don’t wear metal; they wear silk!
It is silly for me to determine a man’s masculinity by how much silk he wears but the fact remains that silk harbours incredible creative potential once marketed and produced right. The USA are currently the largest consumers of silk; tapping into such a broad and affluent demographic could be the key to resurrecting silk from the tombs of dead kings. All it needs is someone bold enough to ignore the rules and make the first move; someone like that young entrepreneur in a royal blue suit.
References
The Silk Road Foundation: History of Silk
Marie Claire: D&G SS15 Show At Milan Fashion Week by Lindsay Conway, 10:46 22 September 2014.
Dazed Digital: D&G SS15
Pictures:
Article by Kelechi Iwumene.
Traditional Chinese People: www.fashions_cloud.com
Slow Boat to China: www.phatpuppyart-studios.deviantart.com
D&G SS15: www.ukmodels.co.uk
D&G SS15: www.swide.com
D&G SS15: www.swide.com
D&G SS15: www.swide.com
Seri Culture Net: www.polymemets.com
F7 | LIFESTYLE.
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