Queering Masculinities in Antwerp Fashion

The first critical assessment of Antwerp fashion's avant-garde creative practices and vanguardist approaches to menswear, the male body, and male sexuality from the 1980s to the 2020s.

Nicola Brajato is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He works in the field of fashion and gender studies and is funded by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). His work focuses on the relationship between fashion and non-conforming masculinities at the intersection of fashion studies, critical studies on men and masculinities, and queer studies.

List of figures Acknowledgements Introduction a. An interdisciplinary lens on fashion and masculinities b. On the meanings of queering c. Case studies d. Avant-garde fashion and critical fashion practices e. Book architecture f. Methodological reflections 1. The Antwerp Fashion Scene: History, Pedagogy, and Avant-Garde Fashion Practices a. The changing geographies of fashion cities: The case of Antwerp b. The evolution of Belgian fashion and the rise of the Antwerp fashion scene c. The role of the fashion department at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts d. Situating gender and sexuality in the discourses on Antwerp fashion Part One: Queering Menswear 2. Stitching and Unstitching the Norm: Understanding Normative and Queer Masculinities in Dress and Fashion a. Aristocratic fashion and conspicuous masculinity b. The modern masculine stereotype: Retracing the roots of normative masculinity c. What have men renounced? Masculinity, the suit, and the ground zero of menswear d. The anti-feminine performativity of the dressed male body e. Hybrid masculinities in fashion: From orthodox revivals to genderfluid fashion 3. Queering Menswear in Antwerp Fashion a. Queer(ing) tailoring: Walter Van Beirendonck b. Menswear in the interzone: Raf Simons c. Designing in the gender spectrum: Glenn Martens Part Two: Queering the Body 4. What Are You Looking At? Men's Bodies, the Gaze, and Masculinity as an Embodied Practice a. A non-foundational approach to men's bodies b. The male gaze and the disembodied modern male body c. Intervisuality, homoeroticism, and the instabilities of the male gaze d. Consumer culture, advertising images, and fashion photography e. Challenging the hegemonic male physique: Non-conforming embodiments and representations 5. Queering the Body in Antwerp Fashion a. The muscular and athletic body through the ambiguous gaze: Dirk Bikkembergs b. The male body in the interzone: Raf Simons's skinny silhouette c. Stocky, heavy, and bearded: Walter Van Beirendonck's bear physique Part Three: Queering Sexuality 6. Enclothed Sexuality: the Dressed Male Body at the Intersection of Heteronormativity and Queer Critical Discourses a. Sexuality as a modern dispositive of power b. Who is afraid of sex? Rethinking sexuality through queer theories c. Dressing heteronormativity, queer sexualities, and desire 7. Queering Sexuality in Antwerp Fashion a. 'Designing with a hard-on': Bernhard Willhelm b. 'There's sex in everything I do!': Walter Van Beirendonck, fetishism, and BDSM c. For Sucsexful Living: Glenn Martens's sex-positive ethos Conclusion Notes References Index