“Menswear is getting bigger, bolder and brighter”

"Ken" actor Ryan Gosling (WSJ photo)

The Barbie movie is coming out in 2023, and SoCal sensibility--for better or worse--threatens to become the next fashion thing:

Such vibrancy aligns with the current menswear mood, said Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman. “There’s real contemporary relevance to how they’re costuming the ‘Barbie’ film,” he said. “Menswear is getting bigger, bolder and brighter.” Just look at recent fluoro-flecked collections from Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton. Arguably the last time we saw such carefree, SoCal-inflected menswear was the ’90s, when overalls were worn with the straps down, tips were frosted and Marky Mark exposed his Calvins.

Bold pastel, sometimes-fluorescent clothes went out in the 20th century with disco. You can still find them on kids whose parents want them to stand out, more for safety than fashion, especially at night time.

If the style is coming back, and we're going to have to pay 3-4x what we are used to paying, it should be comfortable, right? Au contraire, mon ami.

When trying outré colors, heed attention to fit, said Los Angeles stylist Brand Williams. Keep tailoring close to the body rather than going oversize, he said. The bolder the shade, “the more conservative the fit has to be.”

By the way, if you're going to commit to the look, you've got to do one more thing.

Bleach your hair.

Nope.