This article critically examines the evolving representations of masculinity within Kerala's vernacular print media, specifically through two popular fortnightly magazines, Vanitha and Grihalakshmi. It argues that the increasing focus on men's grooming and sartorial practices in these women-centric magazines signals a paradigmatic shift in the gendered public sphere of Kerala. Tracing this trajectory from the mid-1970s to the present, the article highlights how masculine aesthetics, once framed in opposition to beauty and self-care, have gradually been integrated into mainstream cultural discourse. Drawing on theoretical frameworks informed by the notion of counterpublics, the article situates these shifts within the broader dynamics of consumer capitalism, media production and the public sphere. It explores how the visibility of male self-fashioning oscillates between genuine cultural transformation and commodified inclusion, producing a complex matrix of aspiration, exclusion and hegemonic reinforcement. Ultimately, this study foregrounds how sartorial and grooming discourses in Vanitha and Grihalakshmi reflect not only the influence of globalized consumer culture but also the renegotiation of masculine subjectivity within the layered terrain of Kerala's public and private spheres.
This article examines how European models of modernization adopted in Istanbul during the late Ottoman period are represented and critically interrogated through regimes of male corporeality and visuality. Focusing comparatively on Yakup Kadri Karaosmano & gbreve;lu's Kiral & imath;k Konak and Peyami Safa's S & ouml;zde K & imath;zlar, the study argues that dress, body and gesture function in both novels not merely as aesthetic elements but as narrative instruments through which the moral, national and ideological value of masculinity is measured. The article contends that the new urban life shaped in Istanbul produces masculine types that are indifferent to wartime conditions, detached from collective responsibility and oriented towards pleasure, thereby rendering visible a crisis of modernization marked by the erosion of militarist discipline, public responsibility and national belonging. The eroticization of the male body, the transformation of dress into a sign that conceals moral inauthenticity and the redefinition of masculinity through sexual domination emerge as the principal narrative symptoms of this crisis. Within this framework, the article rethinks Karaosmano & gbreve;lu's and Safa's critiques of modernization not as extensions of traditional discourses centred on female morality, but as ideological interventions that foreground the bodily representation of masculinity. It further demonstrates that both authors construct Istanbul as the primary site of this dissolution, while imagining Anatolia as a space of moral and national reconstruction.
This article examines how contemporary menswear challenges hegemonic masculinity through the dynamics of revealing and concealing the male torso, focusing on the work of designer Per G & ouml;tesson. Originally from Sweden, G & ouml;tesson is London, he leads his eponymous menswear brand and is currently course leader tive design techniques expose body parts such as nipples, ribs and shoulder blades that have historically remained concealed in menswear. Focusing on key garments such as slashed T-shirts, hoodies and V-neck jumpers, the study explores how these designs destabilize the torso as a symbol of hegemonic masculinity. Situating G & ouml;tesson within a broader visual and cultural framework, the article analyses how cuts, slashes and openings transform the relationship between body and garment, enabling more diverse masculinities to emerge. Drawing on theories of inclusive and hybrid masculinities, alongside phenomenological and sensory approaches to ing new ways to express and experience masculinity through the interplay of skin and fabric.
Employing a multi-disciplinary approach that focuses on archive reactivation, speculative design and digital lookbook-making, this practice-based research project investigates how AI-driven digital tools - specifically generative AI within Adobe Photoshop - challenge established fashion design processes. This project, through the creation of Suspended Lookbook, seeks to address how digital practices can help to reframe our relationship to existing garments and, by extension, to redefine fashion design. Positioned as a form of visual autoethnography, this experimental exploration unfolds across three intersecting strands of my personal fashion design trajectory: my initial formal training in menswear, the ensuing decade of industry practice and my current academic work on sustainability, gender and analogue-digital modes of making. Presented in the form of a visual essay, this research hopes to reveal hybrid approaches to fashion design while opening broader questions about sustainability, digitality and material memory.
This article explores how collective men's self-fashioning practices mediate power, social fluidity and belonging in postcolonial India. Drawing on typological analysis, ethnographic fieldwork and visual representations of men in Indian films and fashion advertisements, I introduce several interpretive strategies for understanding how sartorial choices in homosocial spaces simultaneously reinforce social hierarchies and foster intimate bonds among men. I argue that such choices both challenge and uphold existing heteronormative ideals. This study then critically examines how alternative masculinities intersect with the caste, class and sexuality systems. I highlight the significance of the 'hard body' masculinity and 'new man' figure in fashion, showing how the neo-liberal construct of consumer culture advances progressive masculine aesthetics while compelling men to negotiate both conformity and the pursuit of intimacy. By foregrounding the fashioned male body as a site of modernity, this study addresses the potential for Indian men to subvert hegemonic structures, even as they remain entangled within social strata. In this process, I demonstrate the socially fluid, fashioned body escapes stereotypes and evokes new possibilities for non-traditional expressions of masculinity.
