Miska Walks Miles: London Boys

photo from Arena Homme + by Alasdair McLellan

Even insiders said, that the trend of punk-look, skinny London-boys is just a transient fad of fashion. Well, it seems they were wrong.

In the past few seasons it was obvious already that a new generation of male models penetrated the world of fashion.

It undoubtedly started with Hedi Slimane, and his legendary collections for Dior Homme. His merits at the house are unquestionable, and we can say, that in a certain aspect, he revolutionized menswear. After Slimane separated his path from Dior, he started focusing on photography, and his signature edgy black&white portraits became trendsetters in short time. With stylist, Nicola Formichetti they created a whole new ideal of male models.

photo from Vogue Italia by Steven Meisel

Womenly, androgynous look, skinny body, roughed with piercings and tattoos, and spiced with cool rock&roll attitude. The army of London's cool kids started to be presented everywhere, in magazines like Dazed&Confused or Vogue Homme Japan, then ad campaigns and finally on the runways as well.

To name some of the most prominent members of this circle, Ash Stymest, Cole Mohr, Josh Beech or Luke Worrall can be seen everywhere. Recent issues of high profile magazines feature their editorials, just as the biggest brands use their faces in their campaigns.

photos from Arena Homme + by Alasdair McLellan

Why do I write about this whole theme?

It seems, in the next seasons the hegemony of Hedi's boys is going to grow, and might conquer the world of male modelling for a longer period than anyone expected.

The June issue of Dazed spotlights the newest faces of the scene in a montage video by Pierre Debusschere. The video intorduces the freshest package of London's it-boys. To be stylish, I could say, that Britain's got talent in the catwalk as well.

The video features casting antics of Alex Bennett, Daniel Hicks, John Patric, Robbie Wadge at D1, Gavin Jones at Models 1, Isaac Carew at Nevs, Josh Blunt, Louis Gage at Select, Jack Sprenger at Storm, Thomas McDonagh at FM. Styled by Robbie Spencer.

Everyone can decide on their own, what to think about this type of boys and everything behind the trend. But I don't think that far-reaching conclusions should be drawn from the current ideal of male models. It's fashion!

Anyways, London might be a gold mine, but there are tones of hidden gems, still undiscovered, maybe the next big thing will be found here, in Eastern-Europe...

Until then, our time comes, Miska puts on his seven-league boots and continues his journey.