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Craig Twist-Fashion Correspondent

Hello September!!!

So last week the social media, in fact the fashion world, was agog with the Dolce and Gabbana Alta Moda show with attracted some of the Hollywood faces.

According to Vogue, it was a scene worthy of a Tintoretto Painting.

Songstress Jennifer Hudson sang live “Nessun Dorma,” and a rainbow crowns the glorious Piazzetta San Marco, in Venice, where the Serenissima used to invite ambassadors and rulers visiting the city to disembark.

It was like a dream.

The guest list included Jennifer Lopez, Ciara, Kris Jenner, Normani, and Dame Hellen Mirren and were all dressed to the niche.

Hiphop mogul Sean Combs, Monica Belluci, and Heidi Klum were especially excited to see their daughters walk the runway.

As per tradition, for Alta Moda, all the clothes are handmade, with the best fabrics sourced and the most exquisite artisanal technics employed from all over Italy. 

One designer described the clothes as the best in the world because they do it with passion.

“But don’t dare to ask an artisan how many hours something took to make, that’s not the point,” said Domenico Dolce. “From the endless detail of the dresses seen on the runway, we can guess that countless hours were invested in the precious parade of designs sourcing silks, brocades, velvets, glass and crystals, embroideries and precious fabrics. 

“When you see something metallic looking like gold… it’s real gold.” 

Well, this year, maybe because the world is still recovering from Covid-19, and some are still shy of full glamour, not all the looks were so opulent at all times, with a section of dresses that impressed with its simplicity, avoiding any embroidery, and just relying on beautifully cut fabrics and rich colours.

If there’s only one thing that we missed seeing on the runway, was a more experienced casting of models that could showcase the magnificent dresses on the runway in a more assertive way, also better representing the strength of the Italian woman that is a fundamental part of Dolce & Gabbana’s DNA.

Enough of the show.

When the Look East policy was implemented some years ago, most Zimbabweans started having access to the Asian market and there was a sharp rise in clothing shops in Harare, boutiques, as they were popularly known.

Most of these shops sold off-the-rack suits and I remember buying a couple of them over the years specifically for weddings as I had smooth legs like James Brown, so I would be invited to be part of the groomsmen based on this prowess.

Apart from that, I bought my first dress suit (for church), a black 2-buttoned Paul Smith suit from one of the boutiques in Harare; if the suit was a real Paul Smith, well that is a topic for another day, but I paid US$70 for it.

I remember the sales representatives emphasising on the suit being a slim fit, as slim as I was back then, which I still am, it sounded like the suit that I wanted even though I never heard of that phrase until then.

I tried it on and it had a perfect silhouette and it draped with my body like it was a bespoke suit, I felt so good.

Over the years, there has been a growing popularity among menswear for the “slim fit” everything and even until today.

I always hear people saying they wear only slim fits, but in all fairness, slim fits are not meant for all body types and wearing a slim fit does not necessarily equate to one looking slimmer. 

In most cases, the garments don’t even feel comfortable hence its imperative to know your body type.

What are pleats?

Pleats are a fabric that is folded and sewn underneath the waistband in front of the trousers and they commonly come in single or double pleats (sometimes 3 pleats but very uncommon). 

These trousers have been very common a couple of decades ago, whereas the flat front which does not have pleats and runs flat from the waistline all the way down is the most common of trousers designs.

Even though most off-the-rack suits come in this type of trousers, the flat front, you would have noticed that in most cases they are tight on the thighs, stretch the pockets, are low-rise which makes them very uncomfortable on the crotch and most men end up sagging them or wearing the trousers below the waistline.

Who should wear pleated trousers?

Pleats are put on trousers for functionality not just for the design.

What they do is create more room on the trousers due to the extra folded material at the front, especially for heavily built guys.

Whenever you sit down and you find your groin area bulging and revealing, your trousers out stretched as though you are wearing skin tights or your pockets are sticking out instead of just draping flat as the flat front name implies then definitely you fall in the pleated trousers category.

Always remember, if you wear slim fit trousers then you have to keep that same pattern with the jacket.

 Regular fit jackets go well with pleated trousers to create uniformity in the silhouette. I know a lot of people might say pleats are archaic and there is no place for them in 2021, but remember style never goes out of fashion.

Flat front trousers are only for slim guys with small waists and slimmer thighs, the rest of the guys have to accept pleated trousers back into the wardrobe with open arms.