11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Why do men love to wear black ? Dubai-based fashion influencer on why it's time to choose patterns
Unapologetic. Unbridled. Uncensored. A thought spun into reality using the threads of dreams. That is fashion.
You don't need to be practical to be fashionable, but you do need to know (and embrace) yourself. To face your biases and come out the other side, having broken those barriers in the name of style and self-representation. For 45-year-old radio jockey Lokesh Dharmani, the evolution of expression came naturally. 'One of my fondest memories of childhood is of a birthday party of a friend. I must have been like six or seven at that point in time. Everyone was wearing different kinds of clothes. I was wearing a sweater, jeans and all that. And I was also wearing my school belt over the sweater. That was unusual. I think I either saw [Bollywood actors] Govinda or Mithun Chakraborty sport that kind of style and even at that age, I wanted to replicate it,' he recalls, adding that what happened next cemented his desire for experimentation.
'My parents were so chill. They didn't say anything - and I think because my parents never stopped me from expressing myself when it came to fashion, it just like kind of blossomed,' he adds.
Today, not only does he sport his own designs, but also has a brand called fbylokesh that's displayed on the racks of NV Couture by Naisha Vasandani in Dubai's Meena Bazaar. The result isn't some tame idea of playfulness but a sharp take on energetic expression that can – like art – bloom into pattern or transmutate into colours and silhouettes that draw the eye.
It's also a revolt against the anchor of chauvinism that has typically grounded men's fashion. 'We live in a world where men are giving a unidimensional definition of masculinity, and trapping young boys into submitting to a very unidimensional idea of fashion or of being a man. If you are a man…you have to wear blacks and beiges. If you wear any colour, you're like a woman. And that's 'bad',' he says. As he questions the underlying misogyny that layers these restrictive ideals, he calls for more icons in the spotlight to light the way.
Admitting that there are idols who spark conversations – 'Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh is a shining example in our pop culture who pushes men to experiment and try different colours and different things' – he stresses that there's lots more work to be done. 'I remember 12 years ago, when I wore red pants to the office,' he says. 'When I entered the office, everyone kind of turned heads and made a comment. Then there's this friend of mine who he looked at me and said, 'this is so ostentatious, only you can put it off…it takes a lot of guts.'
Months later, when he saw his friend walking around in red trousers, it made him realise the only way to see change was to claim it himself.
The times are a-changing no doubt; remember Harry Styles' dress wearing stage or when Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid swapped outfits for a Vogue shoot? While there are outliers even in fashion, the arena of the exceptional, Dharmani calls for more examples normalising colour, pattern, and basically, dressing up.
Currently, two lines of thought coexist, he explains – there are those who experiment and those who shut down any idea of dabbling because they're so bothered about their idea of masculinity.
As someone firmly from the former camp, Dharmani, whose Instagram handle is @lokeshdharmani, calls for flexibility, even when it comes to closet staples. 'When it comes to accessories, it completely depends on what you're wearing. So, for example, if I'm wearing, loose white pants, then then a thin-soled shoe will not really work. I need to have a thick-soled shoes because otherwise the pants won't fall well. There's no, there's no hard and fast rule as such.
'I recently got majorly into rings. I keep experimenting with different kinds of rings, oxidised, some different faces and figures. I like bracelets. I also like to have bracelets that speak to my personality. I also love brooches,' he says, offering up mediums of individual expression.
The golden rule is to pay attention to 'what's trending, what's fashionable, what's in' while bearing in mind the occasion and then cross checking the vibe against your own.
There will, of course, be nay-sayers. But, says Dharmani, 'I've thought about it so many times… my love for colours, my love for clothes, my love for fashion, or any kind of aesthetics, it supersedes any kind of judgement. Secondly, there has been a lot of judgement around the way I dress up and all that, but it has never been in my face. I don't think so anyone has ever dared cross the line with me, because I'm a very no-nonsense person. On the contrary, people have always come to me and said, 'you really inspire us to experiment'. And the last thing, is I think a big shout out has to go to my family. They understood that I had a certain sense of expression, and they never told me it was 'wrong' to express myself.'
They allowed him to dream; to spin outfits based on those splashes of inspiration, to mood board his favourite hues. The result: an aesthetic that supersedes conformity and gives rise to the new Dubai dude: Fashion-forward and fierce.
