The rise of unisexual dressing
The runways have been dismantled, the skinny boys have packed themselves off on their gap year and the photographers have migrated to Couture week. Mens fashion week has finished and I found myself keeping tabs on the proceedings with great interest. Because I don’t know about you but I do find this whole ‘high street copies designers’ game a bit predictable and samey. So why not ‘high street copies the mens collections’? I caught myself looking at the mens shows and thinking ‘how would I wear that?’ For example I really liked Burberry’s new jacket proportions and I reckon they would translate very easily to the womens market, can’t you just imagine one of these shrugged on over a stripy T-shirt dress with heeled ankle boots? I can! Gucci got me with their bags and shoes – a juicy turquoise tote, snazzy embroidered lace-up and a multi-colored loafer which I can easily see working in a tri-tone of red, pink and orange with an anklebone-grazing cigarette pant. Over at YSL, suits, shirts and blouson jackets were configured in fine womenswear silk gazars, organzas and voiles but I must admit, I was more taken with the fabby styling, I would quite happily rip this gold suit look off head to toe, perhaps switching the tie for some sort of silk scarf arrangement. Newcomer Richard Chai’s preppy-punk mash-up was gorgeously executed, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see an appropriation in Topman sometime soon, ditto Maison Margiela’s wear-everyday trench jacket.
There’s been a lot of ruminating in the press over the merging of menswear and womenswear but in this day and age it’s not that surprising – why can’t we wear each other’s gender’s stuff? The more savvy high street stores are already on to this with the likes of Uniqlo and TopMan becoming popular with lateral-thinking girls because sizes run small and prices are keen, plus the clincher – there’s little chance of running into your arch fashion rival rocking the same jacket (unless ‘she’ of course, is a he).
Pics: Men.style.com
Top to bottom:
Burberry
Burberry
Gucci
Gucci
Gucci
YSL
Richard Chai
Maison Margiela
1 July, 2008 @ 2:10 pm
we must all be on the same wavelength thinking of how to wear the dude clothes! I just wrote about it yesterday, haha. Those flower print are absolutely fantastic. I need them.
1 July, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
my big hope is that guys start wearing lighter colours. like today i was looking round and all guys are in black or navy or bright graphic tees, what about nudes and creams and pastels?
1 July, 2008 @ 7:50 pm
i’m all for this. wore men’s clothes all winter. and blogged about it too. and i’m all for it going both ways of course too.
1 July, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
This sort of thing always makes me think of Coco Chanel and how she ‘borrowed’ the Duke of Westminster’s clothes.
I buy quite a few male items in M&S, Gap etc. if I can get an xs size. This is fab though the colours takes it up a level and men’s stuff looks more exciting!
1 July, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
This sort of thing always makes me think of Coco Chanel and how she ‘borrowed’ the Duke of Westminster’s clothes.
I buy quite a few male items in M&S, Gap etc. if I can get an xs size. This is fab though the colours takes it up a level and men’s stuff looks more exciting!
1 July, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
This sort of thing always makes me think of Coco Chanel and how she ‘borrowed’ the Duke of Westminster’s clothes.
I buy quite a few male items in M&S, Gap etc. if I can get an xs size. This is fab though the colours takes it up a level and men’s stuff looks more exciting!
1 July, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
This sort of thing always makes me think of Coco Chanel and how she ‘borrowed’ the Duke of Westminster’s clothes.
I buy quite a few male items in M&S, Gap etc. if I can get an xs size. This is fab though the colours takes it up a level and men’s stuff looks more exciting!
1 July, 2008 @ 9:52 pm
It’s still easier for a woman to dress adrogynously than for a man though, I think a kilt’s as far as I’ve seen men take the skirt.
I was going to post about the man-wedge too!
1 July, 2008 @ 10:10 pm
I was surprised by how much of the men’s stuff I wanted this time around. Fem dressing for men seems to be a trend, seen it on a lot of streetstyle blogs.
2 July, 2008 @ 1:57 am
I have to admit, I like all this. I hope it sticks around.
2 July, 2008 @ 11:34 am
I am with you all the way here. There is something very sleek and pared down with these images and I have often prefered the more muted elements of the mens catwalk shows. It is much more about beautiful fabrics, texture and cut and less WTF.
Buying chain store mens clothes is difficult because the cut is so square, unless you are super skinny with no butt at all you can look end up walking like a man and looking like a man!
2 July, 2008 @ 3:16 pm
Ahhh, those YSL boots are bootiful!
My tall friend gets away with buying guys clothing, the vintage stuff mainly and I am so jealous because mens clothing would never work for me. I like it when woman mix it up, a guys outfit with long hair and such. xx
3 July, 2008 @ 9:52 am
I’m loving the idea of one day, labels having a unisex strand…. it’s a good concept….. I take so much inspiration from menswear these days as it’s easier to dissect things….
3 July, 2008 @ 10:56 am
I went into Topman for the first time with my brother and I was amazed – there was a sale and the stuff was actually reasonably priced (even the normal items), compared with Topshop’s inflated prices. I’m kicking myself for not buying a pair of turquoise green faux-bans when I was there!
4 July, 2008 @ 6:28 am
I even saw on FabSugar leggings for men…dear god
10 July, 2008 @ 2:25 pm
love the boy in the floral shoes. the right dude could rock those so hard.
11 July, 2008 @ 4:46 am
hey i really was going to write about this but havent had the time. I dont wear womens’ clothes or do things like carry womens’ bags, but i really think that if a confident and stylishly inteligent guy adds a feminine flare to his attire in a masculine way then thats cool, thats me. The same goes if women does the same, although it wouldnt be too ground breaking for women since the designers have been doing that already for example Ralph Lauren Spring/summer ’08 with those little blazers.. BTW I love your blog,,mine isnt as neat as yours , but mine is just meant for me..keep doing a good job