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An authority on fashion would no doubt be able to explain what exactly “contemporary menswear” means, but anybody else’s half-hearted scramble must surely arrive at a definition that at least winks at the commercial and mythopoeic connotations of the term. With regards to price point, clothing from contemporary menswear brands locate themselves between those from luxury designer labels and from the High Street (with socks for €13, hats €30 and shirts around €140). They also, however, perpetuate an aspirational archetype that serves as their primary allure: the hero figure of the Former Teen Skater/Surfer Turned Sophisticated Urban Male Creative. To that end, the concerns of these brands and the shops that sell them often extend beyond the clothes that such a man might wear and into fabricating an idealised lifestyle for him.

Take as an example Castle & Drury, a contemporary menswear shop and newcomer to Castlemarket, in the middle of what is often called the “Creative Quarter” of Dublin. One finds there not only clothing labels from London (YMC), Japan (CREEP) and Scandinavia (Wood Wood and Soulland) but print publications (Kinfolk and VICE), accessories (Irish-designed Push watches) and toiletries (a wax-based, solid cologne by Fulton & Roark). But to list the various brands that are stocked by the shop is not to suggest that it is a collection of motley things for sale. It is well curated by its owner, Conor Rhatigan, who seems knowledgeable, friendly and who doesn’t blink when a wax-based, solid cologne is mistaken for lip balm. The shop is not large but the space is used wisely, sundry plants soften the effect of white concrete display plinths and other pseudo-industrial hardware, and the fitting room is not unwelcoming. And although the paradigm of contemporary menswear need go nowhere else to furnish his world, the everyman can browse the shop just as comfortably.

Photo by Aifric Ni Chriodain.