# Does it "work" fashion-wise for these male models to be so dour walking down the catwalk? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381 "2015-01-30T23:30:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/1 "2015-01-30T23:30:39Z")
Video link below. The message for me is that this expensive luggage makes you profoundly unhappy. What’s behind the theory that being disaffected and dour will help sell the product. So many unhappy young men. [Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall 2015 Fashion Show Highlights](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xACPondOTrs) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/2 "2015-01-30T23:53:06Z")
Runway modelling has been like that for years, maybe decades. The idea is for the model to be attractive, but as blank as possible. They get paid to draw attention to the thing they are modelling; any bit of happiness or expression would draw attention to themselves. The way we make celebrities out of people whose job is to be a coatrack has always perplexed me. I’ll admit I haven’t seen this before with people modelling luggage, but the principle still holds. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/3 "2015-01-30T23:55:23Z")
Catwalk shows are not about selling anything (in the sense I think you mean), they’re industry events. The designers are announcing their new styles for the season to store buyers, the press, and other designers. These are all experienced fashion people and they don’t even look at the models unless they screw up - they’re just coat-hangers with legs. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/4 "2015-01-31T00:30:48Z")
They’re all in bad moods because they can’t eat anything. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/5 "2015-01-31T00:31:39Z")
They are there to be human hangers. Hangers do not smile. It takes away from the clothes. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/6 "2015-01-31T00:39:24Z")
I thought it was so you could get an idea of how your teenager would look when you made him wear those clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/7 "2015-01-31T16:02:27Z")
To me it looks like it goes beyond simply “not smiling”. A lot of them look like they are actively pissed off. My theory is that the walk, the pissed off look, the ridiculous music, is supposed to be entertainment for those who are dragged there by people who are only into the clothes. 😃 Sort of how they sneak humor aimed at adults into kids movies so parents watching it with their kids aren’t bored to tears. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/8 "2015-01-31T22:34:42Z")
This is a decades old observation, glumly suffering models of both sexes. (Along with ‘what is up with those goofy unwearable getups/why are their genitals hanging out?’ Because: It’s fashion! no more needs be said!) I imagine they thaw out and work up a pleasant enough expression when the rich and famous offer to marry them, or at least rent them for a weekend out on the yacht. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/9 "2015-01-31T22:43:40Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > They’re all in bad moods because they can’t eat anything. But all the cocaine should balance that out. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/10 "2015-02-01T00:10:37Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Video link below. The message for me is that this expensive luggage makes you profoundly unhappy. It’s not the luggage. Look at those pants. I’d be entertaining thoughts of spree murder if made to wear those pants. But, seriously: what the prior posters said. They’re supposed to be a blank living coathanger. And many people seem to believe that “neutral expression” means the expression of the death-mask of someone who died of aggravation. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/11 "2015-02-01T05:33:06Z")
Anna Sui is one of the few who has her models actually look happy to be wearing her clothes. [http://www.zimbio.com/Anna+Sui/articles/9/Models+Anna+Sui+Look+Happy](http://www.zimbio.com/Anna+Sui/articles/9/Models+Anna+Sui+Look+Happy) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/12 "2015-02-01T06:02:00Z")
I’m blanking on her name, but I remember an interview with a Spanish actress who’d previously been a model, and she’d started as a “tryout model” (that is, the clothes would be put on her to see how they fit, not to show to clients). She explained how, when she got promoted to “showcase model” (displaying the clothes to individual customers), she was told to look “as sour and bitter as possible… damnit, this is going to be a problem, you’re such a cheerful girl! OK, try this: when you’re out there, think ‘yeah you’ve got the money and the husband, you bitch, but I have half your age and half your weight!’” This was in the late 60s. ---
**Author:** ![rock\_party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/13 "2015-02-01T06:16:34Z")
I can see how a distant brooding look could be preferable, but they look like they have either an itchy anus or they’re on there way to the principle’s office. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/14 "2015-02-01T06:19:43Z")
It’s been a thing for at least sixty years, with modeling generally, and probably for most of the reasons already suggested. How do I know this? It comes up in the original _The Caine Mutiny_ novel, published around 1953. At one point, a junior officer to Willis Keith begins his tour of duty on the Caine and, as it turns out, is utterly unable to hold up his end of the work aboard ship, because he spends all his time mooning over a newspaper lingerie ad. Said ad features a willowy model with an expression of faint repugnance “as if someone had just offered her a jellyfish to hold.” (Really love this passage; Herman Wouk doesn’t usually come up with these trenchant similes.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/15 "2015-02-01T15:42:42Z")
The earlier name for these models was mannequin. > [@](#): > > mannequin (n.) > 1902, “model to display clothes,” from French mannequin (15c.), from Dutch manneken (see manikin). A French form of the same word that yielded manikin, and sometimes mannequin was used in English in a sense “artificial man” (especially in translations of Hugo). Originally of persons, in a sense where we might use “model.” > > > [@](#): > > > > ``` > > A mannequin is a good-looking, admirably formed young lady, whose mission is to dress herself in her employer's latest "creations," and to impart to them the grace which only perfect forms can give. Her grammar may be bad, and her temper worse, but she must have the chic the Parisienne possesses, no matter whether she hails from the aristocratic Faubourg St. Germain or from the Faubourg Montmartre. ["The Bystander," Aug. 15, 1906] > > > > ``` > > ``` > Later (by 1939) of artificial model figures to display clothing. > > ``` > > manikin (n.) > 1560s, “jointed figure used by artists,” from Dutch manneken, literally “little man,” diminutive of Middle Dutch man (see man (n.)). Sense and spelling often blended with mannequin. They are three-dimensional stick figures. Facial expressions not wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/16 "2015-02-01T20:38:10Z")
You’ve gotta see _Zoolander_. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-it-work-fashion-wise-for-these-male-models-to-be-so-dour-walking-down-the-catwalk/711381/17 "2015-02-01T21:18:48Z")
Lambert Simnel was a baker’s boy, and Perkin Warbeck was a male model. Both pretended to be one of surviving Princes in the Tower, in the employ of nobles who sought to overthrow Henry VII. A friendly smile is a valuable asset. Simnel was spared, and given a job in Henry’s kitchen. The Warbeck was hanged.