The "general close-mindedness men have about getting dressed" is both an asset and a constraint for a fashion designer, said Sandy Dalal, creator of his own men's clothing collection.
The 23-year-old designer, who took the New York fashion world by storm when he launched his up-scale line three years ago, spoke to a packed room of students at the Davenport College master's house on March 31. His talk was cosponsored by the Asian American Cultural Center and marked the launch of April as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at Yale.
When it comes to buying clothing, "men are insanely brand-loyal," said Dalal. "That's why men are really good customers. ... When men find something that fits them, they'll say, 'I'll take that in every single color.'"
Women's tastes in fashion, by contrast, are in "total, constant change," he said. "With women, what they like a year ago, they will never wear again ever, ever, ever. With men, that will just totally never happen -- unless there's some drastic change or their bodies change completely and they have to start all over again."
Because of their brand-loyalty, it can be particularly challenging to convince men to try a new designer's creations, explained Dalal. "With men, you're stretching them away from what they were, and you're asking them to take a second look at what they're doing and change -- to put themselves into someone else's clothes." Dalal has lured several high-profile clients into donning his designs, including entertainers Ricky Martin, Chris Rock and the Backstreet Boys.
Dalal's fashions reflect his "love for classic stuff," explained the designer, noting that there is a "framework" to men's fashions that gives men's wear "an existence of its own."
In his designs, Dalal tries to bring "a youthful edge" to this framework through colors, patterns and unusual fabrics -- using cashmere in a pair of jeans, for example, or velvet paisley fabric in a jacket. "There are a lot of pieces that are loud, but there are a lot of pieces that are geared to bring men to change slowly," said the designer.
"It's interesting the way that guys can mutate," he added. "They can change, but they change slowly. If you try to push guys really quickly -- if you say, 'Here's skirts; start wearing them' -- it just doesn't work. ... Drastic change will meet heavy resistance, and they'll just shut down and go back to what they know really well."
Dalal was a junior majoring in marketing and Asian studies at the University of Pennsylvania when he decided to swap academia for the world of high fashion. His mother worked in the textiles industry, and Dalal spent his childhood summers traveling to factories around the world, where he became familiar with the basics of clothing manufacturing. "Clothes started as a hobby in high school," recalled Dalal. "If I wanted a pair of jeans, I'd make a pair for myself." While his early efforts "were terrible," he says, he gradually developed his sewing and design skills until he had his own self-made wardrobe.
By the time he was a junior in college, Dalal knew his true vocation was fashion design. He convinced his parents to let him borrow against his final year's tuition, lined up other investors and set up shop in the Big Apple. "New York was staid as a fashion environment, especially for men's wear," Dalal told the audience. His first fashion show was a major critical success, and the company has since expanded into the international market. "It's been this monstrous thing from Day One," Dalal said.
However, the designer demurred, "If success is a handful, it's only one finger that we've achieved so far."
Dalal hopes someday to launch a women's wear line and a more moderately priced men's collection. "I live in a kind of imaginary world," he admitted, where he's free to worked with "really expensive" fabric and labor-intensive manufacturing techniques. "I sometimes think it would be even more challenging to do what I do, but to do it with constraints," he said. "It would be cool to sell to people more like myself, who are not going to go into a store a blow $5,000 on a jacket."
Asked what the future might hold for men's fashions, Dalal said he would like to see men become more like women in their approach to clothing. While most men now base their fashion choices on "the norms" of society, noted the designer, women tend to buy clothing that suits their own personal sense of style. "I would like to see men's fashions go to a level where it's really personalized, where there's no allegiance to a certain full-on look," he said.
"What I believe is sophistication and style is taking a piece of this and a piece of that, and if it works for you, it's great. And if it's totally off-the-wall, that's fine," added the designer. "At the end of the day, clothes are there to make you feel good. You're not going to look good, if you're not feeling it."
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