When You’re a Boy
The Photographers’ Gallery, London
One of the more amazing images in When You’re a Boy: Men’s Fashion Styled by Simon Foxton, is of a man, his naked torso smeared with black paint and wearing an animal-like mask, compete with horns and thick ringlets of hair. Most surprising is that he appears to have three sets of arms, all intertwined and locked. The mouth of the mask is open as if screaming in agony. The combination of human and mythical creature is both disturbing and puzzling.
Like much of Foxton’s work, the presentation often seems as important as the message. Since the 1980s style – the way things look or presented – has become more important in a highly consumer-orientated society. Foxton has been one of the key figures in determining how men – especially young men – see themselves. As a key “image-maker” of men’s fashion, Foxton’s work has come to define not only how men look but also how they see themselves.
Working closely with photographers, Foxton’s work is as much about fantasy as reality, about the self as well as the public image. At his strongest, he raises questions about the definitions of masculinity – whether camp, for example, is acceptable as an aspect of being male. In one image in the series, Hey There Fancy Pants, published in i-D magazine, four models, wearing a combination of colourful casual outfits and sports clothes, are freeze-framed acting out some mysterious scenario that is light hearted and play-acting – anything but serious or “masculine”.
By contrast, a series of relatively conventional images in the series Strictly feature individual portraits of a black youth decked out in smart-casual outfits set in a “respectable” suburban street. Wearing a superbly-tailored outfit of camel-coloured jackets, white shirt, cravat, white trousers and suede shoes, these become a parody of a typical upper-class Englishman. By defying expectations, such “innocent” looking photographs lead to questions of national identity, what is “appropriate” and how far the clothes we wear define who we are.
Working with other stylists such as Nick Knight, Jason Evans and Alasdair McLellan in what must be complex partnerships, Foxton is the entrepreneur, the animator bringing the whole together. The exhibition makes little or no attempt to explain or disentangle this process, which would have been useful in revealing some of the working methods involved.
Equally important to Foxton’s success is the collaboration with the many photographers with whom he has worked. Again, no explanation is given for their role in creating the image, which would have helped to demystify the work.
While there is much light-hearted humour in Foxton’s parade of handsome young men exploring who and what they are in contemporary society, there is a darker side to his work in looking, however obliquely, at aspects of sexual and national identity. To what extent his work reflects prevailing attitudes or plays a crucial role in helping to create them is part of the engaging aspects of what Foxton is about.
By not offering a straightforward celebration of the cult of the masculine, Foxton refuses to accept the conventional macho image, yet his celebration of men also fits into what can sometimes appear overwhelming consumer pressure – which, paradoxically, wants to foster both individuality and conformity. Foxton tiptoes through this difficult territory with beguiling ease.
Emmanuel Cooper
