Another season, another zeitgeist-y moment that grabs the ’gram on fashion show runways. Pregnant women and mothers with their mini-mes on the runway are nothing new these days. Now it’s the turn of the SAHD — the-stay-at-home-dad. Or as probed in Sharon Horgan’s Motherland, SAD, in reference to one of the main characters, Kevin, who spends his life pining after PTA meetings, preparing wholesome kiddy snacks and portraying a drippy extreme of the modern SAHD.
Demna, creative director of Balenciaga, definitely didn’t have that archetype in mind. His SAHD’s had piercings, gender-bending ballerina flats and giant puffers, trudging through a mud-filled stadium with their babies in Balenciaga-branded baby carriers, putting two fingers up at conventional dad attire. In a more gentle turn of the runway SAHD, a dad is seen in crochet knitwear swinging a Bugaboo car seat at Cormio, an up-and-coming knitwear label. As ever, fashion is simply reflecting what’s happening IRL and the message is that dads are taking an equal or lion’s share of parental care need not be reduced to simpering stereotypes.
