As three letter words go, "dad" is pretty neutral. It's casual and descriptive and you're never going to get into trouble for shouting it at a policeman or a traffic warden.
But team it with certain other words – "rock", say, or "bod" – and it takes on a different sort of tang. "Dad rock" is a byword for boring music (think Keane) while a "dad bod", as I'm sure you know, describes the sort of physique you find on men who keep their six packs in the fridge rather than under their shirts and for whom gravity is, frankly, a bit of a scunner. (We're told it's meant affectionately, that it's a reaction to all those "ripped" male bodies we see on advertising hoardings. Don't believe it. It's just a way for the paparazzi to continue to sell beach shots of bikini-clad models even though the male A-listers accompanying them are getting older and fatter.)
Distressingly, "dad" is now being applied to all manner of other things. Not content with sneaking into our CD collections and casting a lookist eye over our unclothed bodies it's taking up residence in our wardrobes too. People now talk in a disparaging way about "dad sandals" ("The unlikeliest shoe trend of the year," according to one newspaper) and various other items favoured by dads are also being scrutinised by the style mavens. They do it under the guise of re-appraisal, but actually it's just so these items (and their wearers) can be ridiculed all over again. Case in point: cargo shorts, a garment I will cling to regardless of the vagaries of fashion. What's not to like about pockets that can fit an Ordnance Survey Map and a big bar of Green & Blacks? Not everyone thinks so. "A deadly plague" is how website BuzzFeed describes them.
Now comes some even worse news: on Thursday New York Fashion Week is hosting The Dad Fashion Show at the Standard Hotel, an extraordinary-looking hipster hangout in the city's East Village.
It's the brainchild of one Josh Ostrovsky, a prankster, comedian and pop culture commentator whose fame comes in part from his six million Instagram followers and from the fact that he once interviewed celebrities on the E! Channel. He has described the upcoming show as "an eclectic collection of apparel" which will celebrate "the moods and personalities of dads of all ages". He isn't actually a father himself, though that doesn't seem to be any sort of impediment. So is he mocking fashion's obsession with dads or is this yet another example of Planet Fashion going where it shouldn't?
Who knows. But if "dad fashion" is intended as a slur, then a simple transposition of the words turns the tables somewhat. Though I'm happy to sport clothes and accessories which fall into the "dad fashion" category (also on the list with cargo shorts: bad sunglasses, high-waisted jeans and anything branded Mountain Warehouse) I do also like to think of myself as a "fashion dad". After all, just because I look like Alan Titchmarsh half the time, it doesn't mean I can't channel Don Draper for the rest of it. Dad fashion and fashion dad are dualities I can live with – and dress for.
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