A little over a month ago in the quaint town of Poitiers in western France, a gentleman by the name of Dominique Moreau engages in a movement against the rigid, gender−based sartorial codes of fashion. He—in league with thirty other able bodied men—spends a good part of the day wearing skirts.

Why, you might ask? Well, it just so has it that, historically, the skirt has been a item of clothing not exclusively marked out for women and Moreau wants to instill that verve to wear skirts in men once again!

Hearken back a month and, quite frankly, we wished Mr. Moreau and his organization, Hommes en Jupe (Men in Skirts), all the best in their endeavors at culling legions of men to their somewhat gender-bending calling, but now we’re reevaluating. Based on the events that took place on Wednesday at New York Fashion Week, Hommes en Jupe’s male skirt movement will definitely gained some pep in its step courtesy of a new patron: Marc Jacobs!

Heroically clad in a red tartan kilt, Jacob’s gaily received accolades for his Marc by Marc Jacobs show. Tartan is seriously doing the rounds this season so the pattern was a pleasing nod to the enlightened, however, there’s no doubt in my mind that a flurry of men who are both expressive with their clothing and comfortable with their sexuality will begin to latch unto this skirt craze.

As is the case with androgynous trends, questions are sure to arise as per the acceptable length at which a man should don his skirt. Unlike the fiasco that currently surrounds men, shorts, and how short is too short, skirts on men and the appropriate length is more of a weighty matter that needs serious discussion.

Not too long ago, The Sartorialist quipped about whether men’s skirts should fall above or or below the knee. My response to that is keep in consonant with Mr. Jacobs—below the knee—and you won’t draw too many added stares!

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If you’re as enthusiastic about New York Fashion Week as I am, I’m sure a week prior to the tents going up you probably deliberated, religiously, on what to expect this season from the likes of Rag & Bone, Obedient Sons, Thom Browne and other notable menswear designers. Would their aesthetic evolve and positively build from their last season or would inspirations for this spring leave them with a resounding kaput?

I cared to know and The Upgrader fed that appetite as they served up a sumptuous preview of twelve New York designers’ SS09 collections!

Granted that Rag & Bone’s British neo-punk leanings of a tailored yet rocker look have come and gone (their show took the stage Friday of last week), the revisiting of “the lives and work of great American Realists, Regionalists, and Abstract painters” courtesy of Gilded Age is yet to take hold (it’s Thursday, Sept. 11 folks) so one can still make do and familiarize themselves on the motivations behind these men’s collections.

As the age-old fashion faux-pas of wearing socks with sandals sauntered down the runway of Alexander McQueen’s men’s SS09 show, US Vogue came out with their “Ageless” issue to celebrate the fashion industry’s old guards.

A very interesting corollary, but does this mean that sandals and socks are in vogue? The look is one that is synonymous with the elderly so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for McQueen if his creative license of resurrecting a fashion faux-pas has any longevity whatsoever amongst his youthful legion of followers.

Mind you, sans the pastel grey socks, the shimmering gold dress shoe sandal was eye-catching and could very well be a strong contender for the new look sandal of next summer. The gladiator sandal is definitely being worn thin so with a hint of deconstruction (i.e., lose the socks), McQueen may be on to something.

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The colourful surprises brought smiles to my face. I don’t know if I was smiling at the Hedi Slimane tailoring (even though the brand has been under the direction of Kris Van Assche for a few seasons now) or because I saw my self- 6 feet tall and slim as a swimmer- walking in the metallic gold, gunmetal skinny trousers that I adored. Whatever the reason, the collection was filled with pieces that every young, fashion forward individual would sell his kidney(s) for.

Everything wasn’t raspberry lemonade though. Assche was too conscious in his attempt to distance himself from the houses previous creative director. So conscious that you could see the blips in the collection: where the quest for isolation blotted out the mission to tell a story.

I hated the dropped crotch pants. The lengths of the legs were drowning as opposed to emphasizing the ease that such a silhouette can add. Some of coats were overworked and the glasses turned me off. Faults aside, the collection was very Dior Homme it’s just a matter of deciding whose Dior Homme it was.

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When pocket dresses first came on the scene, I was a tad envious of the comfort thrown the way of women. This slight bit of detail added to the ever so casual dress left an insatiable feeling within me as I frowned upon the four pockets that lay plastered on my pants.

As the trend became ubiquitous, I watched countless women prance up and down 5th Avenue with a renewed sense of comfort and an aura that exuded a solace I longed so desperately to have. Poise replaced awkwardness and I wanted that…

I wanted more pockets; comfortable, effortless pockets that you didn’t feel like you were digging for gold just to get your hands into them (which is often the case when you wear fitted jeans or pants).

Those desires and odd urges to plunge my hands into some ornate comfy pockets have finally come courtesy of Richard Chai and Giorgio Armani SS09 collections. If this is due to telepathy, I’m thankful because it seems these two heeded my want for an alternate port of escape (I’m trying to purge those fidgety moments of nail biting) for my busy hands.

I know we men may be a bit cagey in some facets of life, but pent-up we are not when it comes to expressing our masculine sensibilities of comfort. Both Chai and Armani’s collections trumped ease over a close-fit and left me smiling over the newfound androgyny in garments with oddly placed pockets!

I admit though, for us men, the frontal pockets of a hooded sweatshirt are a suitable refuge to comfortably bury one’s hands into, but they don’t rival the chic of the pocket dress. What’s more, we’ve one-upped the pocket dress by having the choice of pocketed shorts and shirts! Women 1, Men 2!

[Images: Men.Style.com]

Remember when bulky and dowdy-chic knitwear was in? Well flashback to the A/W07 men’s collections from D&G, Dries Van Noten, and Prada and big, fluffy knits were the rave for the impending winter. If not for the refreshing textures and surfaces that these designers toyed with, the return of chunky, “grandma” knits, quite frankly, would have tanked.

Fast-forward to today and knitwear is experiencing a comeback of sorts, but oddly enough the trend (with a more slimmed down visage) has reared its head in several SS09 collections.

Navigating between the extremes has been the defining element of Milan’s SS09 menswear collections. With the climatic uncertainty becoming a present reality for us all, this shift in aesthetic couldn’t come at a timelier juncture. To recreate this environmental ambivalence of serenity and catastrophe, loosely woven knits doubled as breathable cloaks that lithely blanketed and aerated the body.

Based on past renditions of knitwear, the knits of this SS09 season have a lightness to their construction and fabric choice that may be owing to green fashion. Take Salvatore Ferragamo’s macramé knotted sweater complete with sandals or the somewhat disheveled crocheted shirt and cardigan that took the runway for Allessandro Dell’Acqua. Both looks maintain a sense of élan, but at the same time make a perfect green statement on curtailing consumption.

I still possess one or two heavy knit cardigans in my wardrobe, but considering the topsy-turvy nature of our summer skies, this new breed of aerated, loosely woven knits is a flexible option for those days when a beautiful summer breeze is suddenly followed by a few spatters of rains and a cold front.