The other weekend my friends and I were in the newly-opened Carven store in SoHo, getting our freak on with a bone-inducing amount of merch. The space itself is gorgeous in that modern-imposing way luxury stores have a way of being, but the scale of everything—and all the pink—made it feel more like Claire Courtin-Clarins' closet and less like a Prada pop-up. I bought this shirt, which could easily be D.I.Y.-ed, but #YOLO. What I love about it is the extended hem detail, which makes the proportions feel a bit more Eastern-inspired.
When I was on the subway I saw a man in traditional Muslim dress—I believe this is a Salwar Kameez?—and realized that the print on his top was really similar to the print on my top. So, long story short, it's a small world. Kinda crazy.
Anyway, the incipient influence of traditional Muslim dress on Western menswear—which we discussed here—was noticeable right when I walked into the store and saw the above outfit. At first I wasn't sure if it was a woman's look or a man's (a wonderful ambiguity I felt throughout the store), but when I realized it was indeed men's shirting I couldn't help but feel like designer Guillaume Henry has been "sipping the Kool-Aid"? Is this a sea change in the world of Western men's dressing?
Further example of the "extended hem" at Carven can be seen in this sweatshirt from last season, which is cropped to let an attached shirt bottom peek out:
It's pretty cool, right? Not as good as the shirt, but food for thought nonetheless. And here are some more snaps of the interior, which, as I mentioned, is really pretty:
Definitely check out my piece I linked to earlier for more on this and then take a look at this post on shirt lengths by the ever-articulate Charlie Porter, whose blog you should bookmark immediately if you haven't already.
What do we think? Is this a sign of the (globalized) times or a passing fad?
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