Three avant-garde designers define style for the modern man

 

his is an exciting time for menswear, whether you're designing it, buying it, or admiring it. On July 13, New York will at last join the other fashion capitals in hosting a men's fashion week of its own for the first time.

This isn't surprising. Market research has shown menswear outpacing womenswear in terms of growth year-on-year since 2009, and that millennial men are more interested in fashion than previous generations. But let's talk about the clothes.

For those who believe there's more to style than a suit that fits, a new generation of designers is presenting a varied and unconventional vision of what menswear can be, bringing off-beat design from the fringes to the center with the support of the industry at large. These designers further a legacy of anti-establishment design that has been around for decades, enhancing the menswear tradition while challenging it with work that could be called avant-garde or, depending on your tastes, bizarre. In any case, they're never boring.

So what's the thinking behind these highly conceptual visions of men's dress and, perhaps more importantly, how do you convince the modern man to buy into it? CNN brought the question to godfather of avant-garde Yohji Yamamoto, New York standard-bearer Thom Browne, and celebrated London newcomers Agape "Agi" Mdumulla and Sam Cotton of Agi & Sam.