Men Without Ties, 1994.
Italian Designer, Gianni Versace's
Men Without Ties portfolio collection.
Photograph, 11"x14".

Diskobolos (Discus Thrower)
Museo Nazionale Romano
Marble, Roman copy after the original
bronze of c.450BCE
Height: 5'1".

Men Without Ties (p.25, Hannah) reveals a male figure, athletically built, broad shouldered, narrow-waisted, muscular legged, with one Versace necktie in hand and two tied around the waist. The figure is captured in a dynamically dashing pose, choreographed to show off his muscles, built, vitality and gracefulness.

Men Without Ties is one of many nude poses in Versace's Men Without Ties, a portfolio album of his works. Here, Versace puts together a collection of sketches, designs and magazine advertisements, inserted into such avante-gard fashion magazines as Vogue, Elle, Bazaar, etc. for his Mens Wear collection. Here, Versace introduces to the general public, to the passionate collectors of Versace clothes and to those fans with an eye for fashion, his idea and concept of the "New Man," Versace's man without ties.

This "man without ties refers directly back to Roman sculptor's Diskobolos a marble copy of Greek's original of c.450BCE . (Diskobolos is one of many surviving Roman copies of Greek sculptures, indicating Greek art and sculptures' prominent and long
lasting influence on Roman civilization and society). This heroic-
sized statue depicts a nude athlete, a discus thrower at the moment when the discus is swung furthest back, at the very decisive moment just seconds before the discus will be soared into the air (p.114, Robertson).

Discus Thrower type sculptures, art and architecture is typical of Greek High Classical and Hellenistic art and concerns. High Classical and Hellenistic art desire to portray healthy and vigorous athletes of ideal physical proportion and beauty, to represent the vigorous, healthy and active Greek individuals and citizens. In this way, sculptures, along with other art mediums and architecture, hope to elevate Greek's victory and to celebrate Greek's triumph of a democratic and enlightened city-state over Persia's imperial forces; Greek civilization over Persia's barbarism; reason over animal passion.

Both Man Without Ties and Diskobolos , as mentioned, portray a vigorous, athletic figure, dancing theatrically in dramatic actions and gestures. Whereas Diskobolos is rendered in sculptural, life-size, three-dimensional form, Man Without Ties is rendered in a two-dimensional, black-and-white photograph. Nevertheless, both mediums further express Greek High Classical and Hellenistic arts' concern for a more expressionistic figure, one that conveys and appeals directly to the senses through this lustrous glistening of surfaces and emotions.

The action-figures are now able to reach out beyond its "contained" space and into the immediate surrounding environment. The figures now seem to impose themselves forcefully upon the spectator, provoking the viewer's response to the dramatic situations. This way, the sculptures deliberately attempt to elicit response from the viewer not only emotionally but physically as well.

Gianni Versace, too, continues to revive Greece and Rome's Golden Age and its glorification of the individual man, the "free" man. Versace attempts to re-introduce Greece and Rome's past glories to the world. And in particular, to a general American public who admires, advocates and refers back to Greek and Roman ideals of freedom and individuality; of individual civic minds, individual civic bodies, united under an independent civic administration.

Men Without Ties , in accordance to past Greek (and Roman) High Classical and Hellenistic tradition and aesthetics emphasize a preferred body-type. The New Man is one that's of modern-day gym-physique and built and glistened by radiating self-assurance. These Men Without Ties, are usually captured in dramatically dynamic choreographs of expressionistic vitality, dynamism and energy and dynamism and enhanced by masculine elegance and grace.

And in essence, Versace's ideas and concepts for his Mens Wear collection envisions this "New Man," the modern day, professional, prestiged and challenged male, but one without ties. By shedding the tie, Versace had created a new silhouette. And in doing so, overturned 19th century's strongly-held bourgeois concept of "tying" the man, constricting him to professionalism and occupation, and further sculpting him into a perfect mold and emblem of high class society and etiquette (p.9, Hannah). By shedding this tie, the New Man re-exposes his body and frees it from constraint. It is then able to reconsider its form, function and expression. And ultimately, this opening up of the collar allows the man to reveal contained feelings of freedom, of ease, comfort and of sexual self-expression.













Works Cited

1. Hannah, Giovanni. Abeville Press Publication, 1993.
New York, p.9-25.

2. Robertson, Martin. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
London, p.114.