Brandon Kyle Collection: Plus Size “Menswear”

The mainstream fashion industry is a very powerful tool in perpetuating the patriarchy’s racial, gender, class, age, and body hierarchies. The annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show recently aired, and the brand’s 70-year-old chief marketing officer Ed Razek, who is also involved with model casting, stated (in his offensive words, not ours or our views), “Why did we include that person? And did we include them to shut up a reporter? Did we include them because it was the right thing to do or because it was the politically correct thing to do? So it’s like, why don’t you do 50? Why don’t you do 60? Why don’t you do 24? It’s like, why doesn’t your show do this? Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy.”

While the mainstream fashion industry is particularly keen on erasing specific demographics, acting as a microcosm of larger society, cis men also cannot escape the narrow definitions of “acceptable beauty” set forth by fashion media, brands, and designers. In our article addressing tailoring clothes to achieve the perfect fit, I wrote:

Menswear blog posts and magazine articles addressing reader concerns that menswear doesn’t fit properly uncover common fit issues. Experts often advise that readers know their proportions, get clothing tailored, and/or invest in custom made (aka bespoke) apparel. In fact, James Sanders (also known as the Fat Fashion Guy), a fashion editor and writer on style and culture, recently published an article in the Huffington Post  discussing the dearth of plus-size specific men’s fashion blogs (usually there are only articles here and there offering the same, expensive solutions) at a time when menswear blogs are exponentially increasing in number and popularity. And, The Handbook of Style: A Man’s Guide to Looking Good by Esquire magazine writes, “Are you a ‘drop six’? If you are, you’re a suit maker’s dream: Your chest is six inches larger than your waist. You can wear anything. Sadly, most of us don’t live inside those ideal tailoring measurements.”

The New York Times also covered the lack of plus size visibility in “menswear” in their article “For Plus Size Men“:

Men who fit into the size range offered by most brands have Mr. PorterValetmag.com and GQ to look to for style inspiration. But where can plus-sized fashion-focused gentlemen go? Chubstr.com, a Web site founded by Bruce Sturgell in 2011…he started Chubstr, an online style guide for men whose appreciation for fashion is as large as their waist size.

Some brands have been a staple for “big and tall menswear,” such as Men’s Wearhouse, which some of our women readers also swear by for wedding attire. But, what about clothing for the fashion-forward set whose tastes go beyond suiting and business casual?

Enter the Brandon Kyle Collection, a brand that offers designer plus size “menswear” attire in sizes L-5X.


The brand pushes so many boundaries, not just in diversity in size and race, but also in what people consider “masculine.” The collections play with mesh, lace, and prints, blurring the lines of ridged masculinity.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Holiday 2018

A post shared by Brandon Kyle (@brandonkylecollection) on

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

@thefatjewish @intersectionmagazindeutschland @sinabraetz @jessierocks @brandonkylecollection l

A post shared by Brandon Kyle (@brandonkylecollection) on

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

The 3-D Mesh shirt coming with lining. Brandonkylecollection.com

A post shared by Brandon Kyle (@brandonkylecollection) on

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Holiday 2018

A post shared by Brandon Kyle (@brandonkylecollection) on

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

@marcusshepard #holiday2018 #brandonkylecollection 20% off until 11/13 Code: HOLIDAY20

A post shared by Brandon Kyle (@brandonkylecollection) on

To get your hands on the latest collection before the holidays, check out the Brandon Kyle Collection at:
Website
Instagram

More from Anita Dolce Vita

Watch This Wednesdays: Outtakes from the DYDH Productions Fashion Shoots

DYDH produced a series of androgynous style editorials exclusively for dapperQ. We...
Read More

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.