After being voted Best Dressed Man by GQ readers two years in a row, this year David Beckham has been voted Worst Dressed and criticized for his nouveau riche, “chav” style. The football star who once reigned supreme as fashion king now appears to be waning in popularity and influence. However, men can still find inspiration in his fashion choices, which span the spectrum from hot and hip Dolce & Gabbana designer wear (Beckham’s absolute favorite) to wrap skirt sarongs, shoulder bags, and, rumor has it, his wife’s thong underwear.
If Beckham style suits you than you will want to read these fair advices. To channel the vibe of the penultimate “metrosexual”, look both outward to the latest trends and inward to your own inclinations, no matter how wild they may be. Mix the blatantly pop and trendy, such as logo sports clothing, with the completely unusual - shoulder bags and women’s scarves - and the dazzlingly prissy - glittering diamond watch and stud earring. David reportedly gets a $500 haircut every week and has been known to fly his stylist to wherever he may be. Why not treat yourself to a high-end haircut, spa massage, or facial? Go all out and dress to the nines. Feel free to fluctuate from week to week between superstyled, buffed, and groomed to gritty and rough, trading in your pinstripe pants and cufflinks for tattered denim and distressed leather.
Muster the unshakable confidence required to pull off any hair style, be it mohawk, high ponytail, or buzz cut, and get to know your hair’s character range, from sleek to messy.� As the mood strikes, follow trends of the pack or diverge wildly off the beaten fashion path, into the realm of women’s wear and pretty boy foppery. Little known to men is the fact that a masculine guy who is comfortable enough with his sexuality to blur gender fashion lines can be a huge turn-on to women. Think about how sexy a woman in a sharply tailored power suit can be. The phenomenon works both ways. How about a little black Speedo?
Beckham has made a habit of setting runway trends with unexpected clothing details such as a cummerbund worn in a casual setting or dressed-down sneakers with formal wear. Follow his example and play with clothing pieces out of context. The charm of David’s style lies in the element of surprise, and the best lesson to be learned from him is that bending and flowing with and against the tide keeps things interesting.
Fashionistas say American males could use some of Beckham's poshnessBy EMILY ZEUGNER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
David Beckham: international soccer star; heartthrob; designer clotheshorse; European fashion icon.
But does he have what it takes to influence the looks of that notoriously stodgy species known as the American man? For the brave few, maybe.
For the others, maybe he can give them what he is best known for -- a good kick -- to at least try some new things that could take them out of the baggy pants/big shirt rut, men's fashion experts say.
"Beckham's here to show us not to be scared," says Daniel Biloett, men's fashion expert for About.com. "It's OK to look this great."
Beckham, now No. 23 for the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team, has made his name in fashion by becoming a kind of chameleon, trying hairstyles, trends and designers to suit each passing whim. He has cultivated an eclectic style, wearing everything from tight Armani suits to deconstructed jeans to flashy rhinestone-encrusted tracksuits.
That fondness for sexy clothes contrasts with America's looser, boxier style, says Biloett. Beckham wears body-conscious pants and shirts unbuttoned to the navel, things many American men, who are more "nervous about their heterosexuality," would reject on principle. (Maybe they should look to his marriage with the coolly beautiful Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice, and a fashion icon herself, if they want reassurance that, yes, many women do like this look.)
Most men here, even stylish ones, like their pants three sizes too big and their shirts big and billowy, he says. American males are eager to be comfortable and to appear laid-back. "If you look too put together, you appear persnickety," he says.
But Beckham is often all about being put together, touting the benefits of facials and manicures, and admits to shaving his body and highlighting his hair.
Then there is his willingness to take on many different looks.
Even though a wide variety of trendsetters offer different kinds of looks today -- Jay-Z's hip-hop cool; the sporty clean-cut look of Tom Brady; the rakish style of Daniel Craig -- those guys usually pick one look and stick to it.
"Stylists create an individual look, and it's marketed that way," says Mark-Evan Blackman, chair of the menswear design department at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
Beckham's free-spirited, experimental approach could give men permission to try different styles, Blackman says.
"We accept radical change in women more than we do in men," Blackman says, pointing to Madonna or Jane Fonda's constant reinvention. But "the people handling him might steer him toward just one look because that's what we understand."
Of course, experimentation means at least occasional failure.
"The jury's still out in terms of his taste level," says Wendell Brown, senior fashion editor at Esquire magazine.
Fans were skeptical when Beckham started wearing giant diamond earrings. Photographers winced when he grew his hair into a mullet. And the public recoiled in horror when he paired velour tracksuits with pink-polished fingernails.
There's a chance that truly out-there styles will be especially off-putting for American men, says David Kornberg, senior vice president of men's merchandising for Express. Men's fashion operates differently than women's, he says. Above all, men's clothes have to be "masculine and applicable to a man's life," he says -- not runway-style shocking.
But even Beckham's ill-conceived style choices have had an influence in Europe: His bleach-blond fauxhawk inspired a generation of British schoolchildren, and his short-lived penchant for shaving off half an eyebrow almost caught on.
"He just always looks trendy and cool," says accountant Enda McDonaugh, 34, shopping at a Gap in Manhattan. "Sadly I'm a bit old to pull most of it off myself, but I really admire his style."
Most of the time, Beckham's look is wearable and contemporary. Regular guys can envision themselves in the types of graphic T-shirts and blazers Beckham wears around town, Kornberg says. The Jean Paul Gaultier sarong Beckham sported on a beach vacation is "less understandable" to the non-famous.
Still, his status as a top athlete and paparazzi pet could help him disseminate a kind of European chic and a sensibility about fashion to the more inhibited men of America, he says.
"Plenty of young, straight, girl-crazy men think nothing of getting pedicures," Brown says, "so people should give American men more credit."