If you are not familiar with Terry Singh, you should be. Singh is giving American and international consumers a new way of looking a menswear. And that new way is pairing skirts with formal and informal wear.
A man in a skirt is not a new concept. Marc Jacobs has been the man skirt in his collections, and so has menswear superstar John Varvatos. Terry Singh is doing the same thing, but as the focus of the entire collection.
And that focus is the South Asian menswear skirt, the lungi or dhoti. The lungi and dhoti are traditional men’s skirt that can found as traditional wear in Indian. The lungi is a type of multicolored sarong, tied below the waist and can flow all the way to the ankles. The dhoti skirt is also a type of sarong but tied between the legs.
What Singh does so successfully is take these forms of South Asian traditional men’s skirts is take this aesthetic and mix it in with design menswear aesthetics from Scotland, Turkey and other countries married with a contemporary aesthetic.
For spring 2024 Singh was inspired by hockey jerseys and military uniforms, all seen through the lens of lungi and dhoti skirts. And with that inspiration Singh adds in tuxedo jackets, a streetwear aesthetic, and a new way of looking a red-carpet attire for men.
Where in the past men in skirts was almost a rebellious affront to traditional menswear. Boy George and the punk aesthetic of the late 1970s and 80s gave the proverbial bird flip to Savile Row’s men’s suiting by donning skirt. That is not the case with Terry Singh. Singh is proposing a masculine alternative to traditional by reintroducing the skirt as menswear. And does so brilliantly.
Images courtesy of Agentry PR
From casual streetwear to formal and red-carpet attire, Singh expertly created an expansive perspective on how the modern male consumer can add to his wardrobe. And menswear consumers are taking up the clarion call.
—William S. Gooch
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