Showing Your True Colors

Part 2 from the interview with BEAU HOMME [click to view Part 1]– Do men experience emotion as fully as women? George Bunker, co-founder and designer for Beau Homme, argues that they inherently do, but men have been conditioned to dull their emotions. Today George kindly offers an honest, and in my opinion, much needed critique about American male-norms and how fashion is a means of revolution.

Why did you decide that fashion, rather than art, was the best medium for communicating your ideas? 
I’ve worked in “art world” but it’s a very limited audience.  To quote Robert Rauschenberg, “It’s white people, in white rooms, drinking white wine.” You’re selling the ultimate luxury object. The incredible thing about fashion is that there are hundreds of thousands of people talking about the shows and there is always a need for a new collection every six months. One change that has happened is that fashion became art, and art became fashion. I went to art school and many of us thought we could save the Earth but to make a living out of it you make pieces for banks or investors; you’re creating a luxury object that can be bought and sold as a commodity for the upper 1%. Art is the very last purchase a person makes – they’ll buy clothes, vacations, homes, and finally art. 

Could describe how you developed an interest in critiquing gender norms and identity?
Growing up I hated sports. I couldn’t play them and found them boring, yet in school they were so important. There are very narrow, prescribed, gender norms for boys. For all the struggles girls have gone through they are allowed much more freedom in choosing their interests. At some point I became conscious of these social constraints and saw that even within subcultures there are constraints. I feel like men are just as creative, imaginative, and sensitive as women, yet we aren’t allowed the same opportunities to flourish. From the moment a baby boy is handed a blue blanket he is shortchanged enormous possibility for expressing himself and the personas he could inhabit. 

I’ve always wanted to do fashion but I was also put off by it. It’s an enormously difficult task to try and provide men with an expanded vocabulary to express who they are. In society men are encouraged to shut down 90% of who they are. I don’t know how we got this way. I feel like there’s a crisis with masculinity and it’s not being addressed because men are discouraged from talking about their feelings. Anyway that we can contribute to supporting men, and who they feel they are, puts us on a good trajectory. That’s the drive that keeps us going beyond the next season’s trend or color.

Are there others in fashion who you think share your view of social norms and identity?
I think there is a collective questioning of traditional, prescribed social norms….or I hope there is. The individual is maybe more heard in this post-internet age…. although there does seem to be an outbreak of xenophobia spreading.  It’s a difficult world to be different in, so it’s vital that we all work to support one another.  Any advocate for the freedom and protection of personal identity shares my view.

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Thank you for your time George. I wish you continued success! Additional info for BEAU HOMME is available on their website and Instagram. And their Capsule Collection is shoppable at KWALEO.