Do it like a DUDE!
An understated alternative to the lady-like femininity of so many seasons past (and present for that matter)…
To think it all (kind of) started with a suit. Yves Saint Laurent created the le smoking tuxedo suit in January 1966 and this masculine influenced ensemble was a catalyst that allowed the trouser suit to become a chic and acceptable part of a woman’s wardrobe from thereafter. The 1966 picture is fantastic (see picture above please) that in-your-face stance, cool, sophisticated and chic, of course. The model looks tough but poised, beautiful but ballsy. She reminds me of a romanticised gangster, you know from those old black and white movies, tough talk and pin stripes. She’s slick, in a pretty-boy way, not in an Al Pacino/ Sopranoey way. At the moment I haven’t the faintest idea who said this, I have a very crap memory (sorry), but it was someone incredibly fashionable no doubt, that Coco Chanel gave women freedom through fashion but Saint Laurent gave them power. The ‘66 tuxedo is a powerful statement and it takes a powerful statement to make even that teeniest change. Either way in the footnotes of fashion history the ’66 YSL tuxedo is considered momentous.
What really triggered my current obsession with this alternative to frilly femininity, I mean I still love frills don’t get me wrong, but I saw a girl, just a regular kind of girl, walking down the street rocking a blazer. She was willowy, dressed in an androgynous kind of way with a sleek pixie cut, topped with a black bowler hat. Like Agnes Deyn, but even better. If that’s possible, it seemed so at the time. So I bought a blazer. I did. From the Zara men’s collection and you know something its looks pretty damn nice. I’ve really been taken with menswear recently, possibly my attempt at thriftiness. Men’s clothes are slightly cheaper and more hardwearing than women’s. My laser card has far to often reached the minuses due to a manic induced overspend. I like the cut of it too. I thinking women’s blazer nip in too much at the waist for my liking. It’s nice when you’re looking for something figure hugging but not when attempting to pull off a boyish look.
Whatever the case may be androgyny is definitely having its little moment if the ‘Kooples’ ad campaign is anything to go by (and it is). Beautiful, beatniky couples (‘kooples’… clever, get it?), all of which are painfully cool. It’s an effective ad campaign and if in an ideal world I couldn’t be one of the girls, I’d settle for being one of the boys. C’mon, they all look great. The looks are slightly androgynous, well-tailored yet seemingly fortuitous chic all with a combination of skulls, dickie-bows, stripes and muted colours.
Anyway, to do it like a dude and this is a cliché (forgive me), but it’s true. You just need some attitude. And a big blazer, and possibly a hat.
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