Many people think that the fashion industry is largely dominated by women both in terms of industry players and also in terms of consumers. Caroline Paris finds out that while the consumer market is probably still largely infiltrated by over-spending women, as far as industry positions go it is mainly male-dominant.

Nearly all of the fashion world’s leading luxury brand head fashion designers are men. Notwithstanding, the female fashion week remains a bigger draw than the male one and that’s because on average, women spend more.

This year has seen a lot of talk regarding the future of fashion weeks with some brands pushing for genderless and seasonless events. I am actually of the opinion that there might be a few too many fashion week calendars. There are two female ready-to-wear, two male ready-to-wear and two couture calendars. Then there are resort collections, etc.

It is a lot and if your job position means you need to attend all of these, well that’s an awful lot of scurrying around, schedule planning and event planning.

Up until recently, I had never attended any of Paris’ fashion weeks or any male fashion week in any country. So a few months back, I decided to combine a short holiday weekend trip with Paris Homme Fashion Week and get a taste of it. The events are scattered across different venues around the city, some in grand buildings, others in hotels.

Nearly every designer seems to go the extra mile and try and create something innovative, not in terms of the clothes but in terms of the show setup. While I think the idea of a fantastic show is not a new one, I do believe that social media has encouraged the concept threefold.

The atmosphere backstage during an all-male show is definitely less hectic than at an all-female

So how does a male fashion week differ from a female? For starters, there’s a lot more men in the audience. There also seems to be less of a public figure aspect. The people who attend male fashion weeks are generally there because they work in the industry – there isn’t that concept of wanting to be seen or at least not that much of it.

Female fashion weeks have really risen in popularity over the past years and there are some people who think that the whole street style idea has created somewhat of a circus.

One of the highlights of the trip was going backstage with MAC Cosmetics at the Kenzo and Paul Smith shows. I chatted with the key make-up artists about the differences between applying make-up of men versus women.

Apparently, male models tend to neglect their skin which means more skin preparation needs to be done before make-up can be applied. There’s also a greater need for eyebrow grooming and shaping. The hardest part of male make-up application is that it shouldn’t show and ideally it should also not cover the entire face the skin should show.

Make-up artists at Kenzo said working on male models is a very good learning experience.

The atmosphere backstage during an all-male show is definitely less hectic than at an all-female. There are less final touchups being done to the hair and make-up, less frantic panicking to get a model into a sky-high pair of heels or a tight dress.

A Paris observation (I asked, it happens in the women’s events too) is the type of food backstage. While in London shows the food available is generally always very healthy, at Paul Smith, I spotted baguettes and chocolate cake - definitely right up my alley.

For the rest of the trip, when I wasn’t scurrying about fashion week events, I spent some time in a beautiful boutique hotel Adele & Jules. A lot of time walking around beautiful Paris – walking around in a striped Annakiki ball gown dress that earned a few stares, drinking in the beautiful sights, indulging in a spot of sale shopping and eating some of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted. Definitely an enjoyable weekend.

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