The front rows at menswear shows are, as one might expect, dominated by male editors and retailers, stylists and celebrities. And during New York Fashion Week: Men's, which begins July 13, if you look down at their feet, you will see a single line of painstakingly selected, shamelessly expensive, overtly fetishized sneakers.
"Men's fashion is being transformed from the feet up," said Elizabeth Semmelhack who, as senior curator at The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, is unquestionably biased about the importance of shoes to the overall understanding of a man's vision of himself. But that doesn't mean that she is wrong.
Sneakers have allowed men to flourish as peacocks - changing the mood and quickly adding flair to tailored suits, skinny jeans, baggy leggings and even tuxedos.
In recent years, men have eased into all manner of new, flamboyant plumage by way of an accessory that is firmly embedded in the quintessential cliches of sports, athleticism and masculinity. Sneakers are entrenched in the cult of boys, so much so that they occupy a different status than mere shoes, which are associated with women. Shoes, Semmelhack said, are what women are derisively described as obsessing about. Women are considered to be unhealthy shoe-a-holics - ruled by an insatiable and hysterical attachment to sling-backs, stilettos and mules.
"We don't consider sneakers to be feminine. Therein lies the essential difference," Semmelhack said. "Sneaker collecting, done by many men, is (described) in the tradition of other male collecting, like baseball cards and fine wines. It's about having every single one in every single model. Female buying is 'emotional'; male buying is posited as rational. But emotion is just as wrapped up in sneakers."