Dear JW,
I'm guessing that the 'Prom Challenge', Kevin's loss and Michael Kors statement about 'straight' men's inability to design evening wear and can only design for the "hooker" and "mommy" may have prompted this question. I respect Mr. Kors success and enjoy his comments on PR however he's wrong about straight men and their design skills. I would also point out that some of the worst design seen in the episode was produced by gay men.
I'll start with short answers to your questions.
1. Sometimes. No straight designer I know could, or would, do Bob Mackie or Barbie.
2. No, there is no gay/straight meter for design.
3. Unfortunately, there is some reverse discrimination in fashion.
Now a story. But first a little background. I'm straight. Married. 2 children. I teach and practice fashion design. I'm masculine, athletic and hate show tunes. I have better taste than many gay men I know. I can describe and design a million shades of female sexy other than "mommy" and "hooker" to use Kor's terms.
A few months ago I was in a design meeting with a team of gay male designers discussing a target customer - I disagreed with their style decisions and a very heated argument started. The target customer was a twenty-ish woman with gothic tastes. They were wrong about the details of her style. And why was I right? Because I had at one point been intimately involved with a girl very similar to this customer. And that deeply intimate knowledge of her and her life made me the better designer. I got the job - they didn't.
There have been other projects where a gay perspective and experience was more suited to the job and another designer was the better man.
The ability to design successfully and tastefully isn't gay, straight, male or female, young or old.
Unfortunately there are some stereotypes and behaviors that exist and persist in the industry.
And so here's a list of heterosexual men who created, innovated and defined fashion design, several of them in evening wear ... Charles Frederick Worth. Marc Bohan (Dior), Oleg Cassini, Roberto Cavalli, Andre Courreges, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Jacques Fath, Edoardo Fendi, Louis Feraud, Mariano Fortuny, Romeo Gigli, Bill Haire, Charles James, Christian Lacroix, Ralph Lauren, Lucien Lelong, Ottavio Missoni, Edward Molyneux, Claude Montana, Luca Orlandi (Luca Luca), Paul Poiret, Emilio Pucci, Oscar de la Renta, Marcel Rochas, Emanuel Ungaro. Also, Patrick Robinson, a recent judge on PR.
Yours,
Anthony
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