To Men, Women Who Look Comfortable Look Sexy

Any woman who has ever found herself struggling to zip up her second-skin jeans, tugging her miniskirt down toward her thighs, or trying to look relaxed in public while wearing nothing but her underwear, could be suffering unduly. Contrary to popular opinion, it seems that poured-into and put-upon women’s fashions are not those men fantasize about most.

No less a heartthrob than Mikhail Baryshnikov confirms, “I’ve been working in casual clothes all my life, and I like a woman who dresses very comfortably.”

For many men, comfortable means an adaptation of men’s classics--tuxedos, pajamas and active sportswear get particularly high ratings. If not that, they like the softest, loosest-fitting womens’ styles best.

“Loose is sexier than tight,” says James Petersen, a senior staff writer for Playboy magazine. “We sense the motion inside the clothes, and that is always sexy.”

Possibly, the appeal of men’s wear for women derives from the lack of artifice men’s clothing has traditionally possessed. “There’s a sizable minority of us men who think that nothing looks sexier than a woman in blue jeans, a flannel shirt, no makeup, no heels--just whatever’s comfortable,” says Andy Klein, a Los Angeles based free-lance film critic.

Unisex activewear sets men’s minds in motion for similar reasons. “I like to see women in ski and tennis clothes, especially when they’re skiing and playing tennis,” says the dapper Roger Moore. As Agent 007 in several James Bond movies, he’s made a study of the look while racing down ski slopes and snorkeling through exotic waters with a gorgeous co-star.

Esquire magazine editor-in-chief Lee Eisenberg likes the “honest dressing” quality of activewear. But only when it’s honest. “When a woman wears a tennis outfit but doesn’t play the sport, it’s much too slick,” he explains.

“The best thing a woman can wear is a man’s pajama top,” counters GQ editor-in-chief Arthur Cooper. “It’s perfect around the house and at trendy clubs.”

Claudette Colbert showed how intriguing man-tailored sleepwear could be when she first wore it on screen in “It Happened One Night.” Clark Gable, her co-star, certainly approved.

“It makes a woman look like an innocent little girl because she’s dwarfed by the oversized shirt, yet it leaves something to the imagination,” Cooper says. “And I find that much sexier than a diaphanous black negligee.”

A number of men agree that the color black is nowhere near as appealing to them as many women imagine. “Black can be too much of a bad thing,” supermodel Kathy Ireland learned from her husband. “Once I wore black stretch pants, a black sweater and black tennis shoes, and I thought it looked pretty good. But my husband said I looked like a black widow spider.”

Instead, men like colors they associate with babies--pink, blue and yellow, explains popular psychologist Joyce Brothers. “A man feels protective of his woman, and he likes to feel he can baby her,” she explains.

Of the women’s fashions men fantasize about most, tuxedos might well top the list. Marlene Dietrich, Liza Minnelli and Madonna have all helped make the look a symbol of sex appeal.

Similarly, when Madonna appeared on a recent cover of Esquire wearing a pinstriped double-breasted man’s suit, she stirred up a disarmingly sexy image. Of course, the impact is multiplied if, like Madonna, the woman forgets her shirt.

Fashion stylist Derric Lowe often dresses top female vocalists in men’s wear for performances. For Paula Abdul’s new video, “Opposites Attract,” he found an actual men’s suit from the 1940s, along with a ‘40s-style tie and pocket watch Lowe added.

“The most appealing look for a woman is a masculine suit with broad shoulders, cuffed pants and a nipped-in waist to create a feminine touch,” he believes.

There are limits to the appeal of men’s wear for women, however. It switches from fashionable to frumpy when a woman dons an austere, overly-corporate “power dressing” suit and a floppy bow tie. “A woman who dresses just like a man is as unattractive as a man who dresses just like a woman,” says Denis Boyles, author of “Modern Man’s Guide to Life,” published in 1987.

“Some females feel compelled to do it in order to gain acceptance in the corporate world, but it’s like a man working in a perfume shop dressed in a miniskirt.”

Likewise, linebacker shoulder pads are best left in the locker room. “At work I’m turned off by them because the women don’t appear to have heads,” Boyles says. “I walk into the office and see ‘Honey, I shrunk Dick Butkus.’ ”