Do the Clothes Still Make the Man When They’re on a Woman?
“W hy can’t a woman be more like a man?” an exasperated Henry Higgins wanted to know. He might not ask that same question today, at least if the conversation had turned to fashion. Because the modern fashion palette for women includes not only traditionally feminine clothes, but traditionally masculine ones as well. Should women opt for the male look simply because they can? How do women like wearing man-styled duds? And what do men think of the crossover?
HE: There’s not a thing wrong with women venturing into the male fashion preserve for the occasional outfit or item for effect, as long as the result doesn’t become obsessive or clownish.
Quite a lot of male-inspired clothes for women are cut for women: jeans, certain shirts, jackets. But every now and then at some celebrity party or on some runway somewhere you see a perfectly fine looking woman in some outsize, clunky man’s suit with the shirt collar about 20 sizes too large, a badly knotted tie around her neck and huge, cloddish brogans on her feet.
She looks like she was dropped naked into Harris & Frank and is desperately trying to get home in the clothes she managed to snatch off the rack.
SHE: Gee, thanks for giving women permission to enter the masculine realm of square knots and trouser flies “for effect.” Truth is, we’re there for comfort, a change of pace, not to look like men.
Obsessive? We’ve been hooked for years on jeans, shirts and jackets. They take us anywhere.
Clownish? You mean those items had better fit us like a woman . Heaven forbid we’d wear them so big you’d have to guess about our gender.
The now trend for women--pin-striped trousers, crisp shirts and ties--is more about enjoying a tailored look than wanting to be like a man.
HE: The problem, though, is that when a woman is swimming around in a suit, she doesn’t look like a man or a woman. I have no quarrel with jeans or other fairly practical and long-established unisex clothes. They’re comfortable and casual; they serve a purpose, and you can still tell there’s a woman in there. I just happen to like the sight of the female figure. Call it a weakness. Sue me.
SHE: Grab a second look at the new “men’s” suits that women are sporting. The jackets hug the waist, and they’re long enough to follow the curve of the hip. They’re about as sexy as anything you’ll ever see on a woman.
The tuxedo look is another hot option for women now. I’m almost afraid to ask: How would you feel about your date showing up at a black-tie affair in black tie ?
HE: I’ve seen those female-tailored tuxes, and I like them. Although we might look a little silly standing together, since I’d be wearing black tie as well. Feminizing male attire is fine with me; my quarrel is with the crossover being made with little or no alteration of the lines and, more importantly, the spirit of the garment. Those mannish business suits for women that were in vogue a few years ago were an aberration. They deserved the death they got.
SHE: Sorry, but I can’t stop laughing. I can just see macho you and your date at a gala doing your “Victor/Victoria” thing.
Truth is, I find tuxedos a bit much on women. I was at a party a few years back with a couple--man and wife--who wore twin tuxes. Her hair was very short. Like his. So she wore the gaudiest earrings she could find to set them apart. They were not an attractive twosome. They came off like they were competing.
I like the gray-flannel-suit look on a woman in the workplace. Or at a power lunch. A board meeting. On a city street. It has its place. And that place is usually when she plans to be on her own, without a man.
HE: Not a thing in the world wrong with looking clean and businesslike, but I draw the line at dressing to intimidate. I don’t like it on men, and it does even less for me on women, because that look is necessarily masculine. A roomful of power-suited men and women is not a friendly place. You want that gang on your side in a courtroom, but I like to look at something a bit softer across the table from me at lunchtime.
SHE: Sounds like you feel less comfortable when a woman dresses to be more comfortable.
Hey. Why can’t a man be more like a woman? Ever thought about trying on one of those snappy Donna Karan pin-stripes? Give it a shot. And see you in court.
