Ist Brüno More Chic Than You Think?

At the de la Prada show

I don’t know about you but, while I was rather impressed by Sacha Baron Cohen’s previous endeavour “Borat”, it didn’t quite measure up to the expectation I had constructed prior to seeing actually viewing it. Yes, it provided outrageous lampooning and subsequent hilarious results but ultimately exposing America’s latent (or perhaps more often open…) bigotry has a very temporary effect, I found. Rather idiotically, I’ve succumbed to mass-media hype once again and am itching to finally witness the camp fierceness of Brüno. I mean, who else can work a velcro suit engulfed by disparate garments like he? Ágatha Ruíz de la Prada never looked so good.

But the point of this post was not to commend Baron Cohen’s comic efforts but rather to kind of (and the link may be v. tenuous) draw a similarity between the unabashed fabulousness of Brüno’s wardrobe and current men’s fashion. Agreed it does sound entirely laughable when first heard but is it really all that unlikely? Often we’re presented with some seriously ‘out-there’ costumery on the runway but just as often we seem to recognise zany designer looks as perfectly acceptable purely because they’re presented in the hallowed halls of a show venue, and on the flawless limbs of a lightly-muscled model.

Indeed, the man behind the glittering Eurotrash/high-fashion juxtaposition that is Brüno’s wardrobe has stated that he researched current collections (from the unsurprising inspiration: DSquared, Gucci, to designers of equal weight and renown that might not be immediately associated with the pseudo-Austrian fashion reporter: Romain Kremer, Martin Margiela and Raf Simons) as well as scoured eBay.

Take the below looks for example. Marni is surely apparent in the schoolboy ensemble. Granted the whole thing’s a very literal interpretation I still think it’s hard to deny the likeness here.

As for his choice of underwear. As The Moment observed, it’ll be tough to look at Galliano’s work with the same degree of serious consideration after witnessing what might be Brüno’s rendition of his SS10 speedos…

John Galliano SS10

So, before you go thinking “Mein looks are all that!”, consider how it’s acceptable, and indeed expected, that we deride Brüno’s style when ze men’s fashion is often not much different.

Watch out Thom Browne. Brüno does cropped too, if somewhat moreso.

Images from Men’s Style, Telegraph.co.uk, TVguide and Hitfix