Return of the alpha-male in fashion

PARIS (AFP) — As the world tut-tutted over the hazards of throwing ultra-skinny female models on catwalks over the last months, few noticed the men too had shrunk.

After decades of using male models with virile good looks and porn star physiques to parade their clothes, fashion houses in the mid-1990s began downsizing men, going for younger, thinner and lankier models in a trend that last year wound up being just simply androgynous.

But specialists say a page is being turned, and the real men are back.

"Our man this season looks like a young Texan farmer," said Ungaro assistant designer Damien Amsallem. "He has muscles, though he isn't big. And even if he's only 20, he has a real physique and looks like a man."

Yet just a few months ago, after the season's fashion shows in New York, Paris and Milan, The New ...