The men who laid the path (or catwalk) for Derek Zoolander on show at York Castle Museum

New permanent exhibition, Shaping The Body, from 25 March 2016

Derek Zoolander, who returns to the silver screen for Ben Stiller’s sequel, Zoolander 2, may have made a career out of looking really, really good looking in the most outlandish fashions of the day, but men were donning even more outrageous styles 400 years ago, according to curators of the new ‘Shaping the Body’ exhibition opening on 25 March at York Castle Museum.

Trend-setters of the past were not designers who used models to show off their fashions, but rather wealthy ladies and gentlemen who used to cultivate their own particular styles. As now these were influenced by fashions flooding in from European Royalty, which were then emulated by others who used clothes as the ultimate status symbol of wealth.

“In the 21stcentury, women’s fashion is more widely celebrated than men’s, but if you look back a few hundred years, it was gentlemen who used increasingly elaborate clothing to stand out from the crowd.  Gentlemen at the cutting edge of fashion would be wearing higher heels and frills on their clothes than some of the women,” explains senior curator, Ali Bodley.  “These gentlemen were known as ‘Fops’, which was a derogatory term for someone overly –or foolishly - concerned with their appearance.”

Unlike the more extreme creations modelled by Zoolander’s contemporaries on the 21stcentury haute couture catwalks, these outlandish styles became everyday wear amongst aristocrats – gentlemen would rarely be seen without a heavy layer of white makeup and rouged lips.

The ‘fopish’ style became even more exaggerated as the popularity of the Grand Tour – an expedition around the cultural centres of Europe – brought wealthy English gentlemen into contact with the Italian and French aristocracy, who were also fans of elaborately ornate clothing.  The result was the birth of the ‘Macaroni’, easily recognisable for huge wigs decorated with bows, and elaborately theatrical clothing with ornate trims.  “Just as we have a celebrity-worship culture today, the subculture of the Macaroni was intended to make you stand out from the crowd, though it was extremely impractical – assistants would spend long hours to dress, primp and preen these followers of fashion, and indeed, they were mocked by their contemporaries who could not comprehend this obsession with vanity!”

However, when the effeminate ‘macaroni’ style fell out of favour, it was replaced with a styling that is familiar to today’s male models, including a Zoolander favourite – tight leather trousers.  “Beau Brummell was a fashion innovator, with clothes that highlighted the male form, and were more comfortably worn when riding a horse – high waisted jackets, for example.  His style was far more accessible and was quickly adopted by a wide range of men in the Regency period, probably best known today as Mr Darcy’s style from adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.”

A whole range of men’s fashions from the last 400 years is included as part of the ‘Shaping the Body’ exhibition, which opens on 25 March, and incorporates its very own catwalk, where visitors can try on some of the unusual outfits from the past in their own Zoolander-style fashion show!

For more details, please visit www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk

ENDS

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