Life & Style | Beauty & Fashion
For men, of men, by men
Men's wear gets all dressed up as Hatem Alakeel, Loai Nassem, Troy Costa and Vikram Phadnis present their collections at the Dubai Fashion Week.
- By Jyoti Kalsi, Gulf News Report
- Published: 00:39 March 24, 2008
- Image Credit: Vazhisojan/Gulf News
- The men's wear collections ranged from smart Western suits and jackets to contemporary versions of traditional ethnic garments.
While most of the designers at Dubai Fashion Week focused on clothes for women, there was something on the runways for the men too. The men's wear collections ranged from smart Western suits and jackets to contemporary versions of traditional ethnic garments.
Leading the revolution in Arabian men's fashion was Hatem Alakeel. The designer from Saudi Arabia demonstrated that contemporary Arab fashion is not limited only to women's clothing. Even the men now have an option to express their individuality while still wearing traditional garments.
A need
Alakeel spent his childhood in Europe and graduated in marketing and communications. But after moving back to his country six years ago, he sensed a need for modernising the traditional thobe and decided to take the plunge into designing. He launched his label, Toby, a year ago and has recently opened a boutique in Jeddah.
He designs four separate lines of thobes for various occasions. His Bohemian line is embellished with embroidery in contemporary graphic patterns and the Trend line taps into latest fashion trends such as buckles, zippers and touches of colour.
Alakeel's Sport line has a sporty feel with inscribed numbers and taping details, while his Classic line includes shirt inspired thobes with collars and ties.
He also does Swarovski-encrusted wedding daghlas in colours such as royal blue and champagne. The garments are made from fabrics like stretch denim, mohair, silk and shantung and the colours range from baby blue, black and beige to ochre.
"This is an East meets West crossover line and embodies who I am. These are contemporary clothes for everyone. I want people to see that it does not have to be western wear to be high fashion. Elegance and style can be applied to all cultures," said Alakeel. The designer also creates a line of shirts for contemporary fashion conscious men.
What's Toby?
"Toby means 'my thobe' in Arabic. It is also part of a common expression 'al basmin thoby', which means 'I wear my own style'. So the name is symbolic of my own style," said Alakeel.
"I am not here to dictate to people what to wear. I am here to help them express themselves. We live in a culture that does not encourage individuality, but I believe that men should have a right to express themselves through their attire," he added.
The designer was happy to make his ramp debut at DFW. "Dubai has become the benchmark for the Khaleeji market. It is dynamic and embodies globalisation. Everybody in the region looks at Dubai as the future and it has affected us positively," he said.
Creative input
Loai Nassem also presented a line of contemporary thobes for the fashion-conscious Arab man. The Jeddah-based designer said that he receives valuable creative input from his wife. Interestingly, Nassem presented a joint fashion show with his mother, Hend Halawani, who designs contemporary abayas for the fashion-savvy Arab woman.
Another Jeddah-based designer, Mahmoud Hafiz, focused only on T-shirts. The designer, who has recently launched his label, Noon, took inspiration from his Arabic heritage and language to create T-shirts with abstract prints, funny sayings, anti-war slogans, environment-friendly messages, camels and horses.
His men's line came in basic colours like black, white, red and grey with a white tee decorated with a ghutra graphic hugging the neckline being the highlight of the show.
Another take on contemporary men's fashion was presented by Indian designer Troy Costa. His collection titled Man in the Mirror was a smart masculine line of well-tailored jackets, shirts, trousers and jeans.
"After the era of the metrosexual male everyone is now talking about the ubersexual man. I wanted my collection to have a strong masculine look for the man who makes his own fashion decisions and statements. So I have used fabrics such as leather, washed leather, neoprene, lurex, suede and linen coated with paint to get the right feel," said Costa.
Quirky
The designer is known for his quirky tailoring details and innovative cuts. In this collection we saw touches such as jackets with no lapels, buckles on the collar, V-shaped pockets, zips and trims on the inside of cuffs, unusual linings, seamless sleeves travelling to high collars, bellow pockets with pleats on denim jackets, rivets, shoelace ties on suit jackets, gold trims on jackets and trousers and buttons hand-coated with fabric.
The interesting accessories included leather ties, gold and silver ties and a tie that was half black and half silver.
At the other end of the spectrum, Bollywood designer Vikram Phadnis presented his version of traditional Indian ethnic garments for men. These included printed dhotis, salwars and patiala trousers coupled with bling jackets and achkans.
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