Since I have started this research project, I knew one thing that I have to so something related to menswear. One reason my interest in it and another because I knew somehow or the other it will help me in my final project or in future. So when I thought about taking up the topic “Are men fashionable?” or “Men in Pink”, the drive behind this was that I wanted to know what is lacking in men’s fashion. Right now as I noticed men on streets, most of them are conventional wearers. So to give support to my observations, I started doing research on it. I thought there wasn’t much being done in men’s fashion by designers but after doing my research, I found out that I was mistaken. There is a lot being done in menswear. But then why cant I see it on streets? Then I thought maybe its consumers/customers who are not very acceptable to changes in style. This made me refine my question. Now, I decided to do my research on “Are men receptive to fashion trends?” or “To what extent are men receptive to changes in fashion?” I again formulated my research strategy. I went to different places and took pictures of men – at night, at day, when shopping, when hanging out with friends, when partying. I even looked at blogs and menswear trends, asked men questions. But when doing all this I realised – What is it that I am actually looking for? I had pictures, I had answers of men, but how do I measure if they are fashionable or not? How do I define the parameters? I see men not experimenting much with their clothes, yet when I ask them, most of them are happy with their wardrobe and with men’s fashion. Now that made me think – Why do I want to see if they are fashionable or not? How dies it help? I realised Fashion Designer not only gives customers what they want but also, and most of the times, give what customers don’t realize they need! So now again I am at the point where I am stuck. I don’t know how to move ahead with this research. Because I don’t really want to know to what extent they are fashionable. That is not the right question I guess.
While I was analysing men’s pictures that I took, I concluded that maximum of them were wearing conventional clothes – jeans + dark jacket/overcoat + shirt/t-shirt + muffler + shoes. I agree that is the typical silhouette in menswear but I found very few experimentation within it. One thing that men played with was color in mufflers and t-shirts to some extent. Other interesting article in their overall appearance was their shoes. And jacket looked the most important piece of their wardrobe.
Then I thought that maybe Jeremy was right. Maybe everyone could see it except me at that time because I guess I needed to realise it myself that maybe this is not the question that I actually want to research on. Or maybe now I cant see the point of doing research on it. Or again maybe this is the result of the research I have done so far. As Mark said, we should keep reflecting and analysing our research and keep going back to the actual question. And now, I need to take these answers/results from the research and find the question/topic that I can focus on in depth.
