Future Formal

    I have written a good deal about how our culture is shifting further and further to the informal in all manners of dress.  Just now though, women's formal attire seems to have ossified.  Little that is really a fresh take on evening attire is being done.  For the boys in the room however, the field is opening up considerably as menswear is playing with materials and manners of decoration that have been off the table for 200 years.
    The real question on the table though is where will formal attire end up?  Will it fade entirely out of existence?  Will it become so rarefied that it will only be something we rent, like the ubiquitous wedding tux?  Or will it find a new level that accommodates our need for ease and mobility, without losing the sense of luxury and occasion that such apparel has always had?
    For myself, I would vote for the last of these outcomes being most likely.  We are a magpie species. We love things that are shiny and have opulent textures.  And our desire to feel that sense of elevation that comes from special clothes is not one that is likely to go entirely out of our psyches.  Since the dawn of our existence as upright hominids we have done endless numbers of things to make ourselves feel and look special.  It is surely unlikely that all those of us who love a bit of glam in our world are suddenly going to drop it out of our Attire conversation.
    So, with that in mind, here's a sampling of menswear looks that point in a new direction for formal attire. Take a gander and see if anything is something you'd call your new glad rags.