I'm loving the androgynous trend this Winter.There's something sexy about a woman in a man-style suit - a fitted black suit with a white shirt and skinny black tie. The girls dressing as boys trend seemed to start with Marlene Dietrich shocking the world with her man style suits in the 1930's, and then gathered momentum in 1966 with YSL launching his Le Smoking jacket (below, shot by Helmut Newton).
Just look at Bianca Jagger (below) when she married Mick Jagger in that amazing white YSL fitted suit, sans shirt. Diane Keaton launched a massive trend with her Annie Hall look in the 70's and model and Chanel muse Inès de la Fressange.
Inès (below) has mastered boyish yet sexy gamine look. One of her style icons is Katherine Hepburn " or simply somebody that looks comfortable. Anyone who wears men's clothes and looks feminine is also very stylish."
I also loved k.d Land & Cindy Crawford's 1993 Vanity Fair cover. Sexy androgynous cool.
I have long been a fan of Karen Walkers' black trousers, particularly after Madonna rocked them out at the 1998 MTV Awards (below). Karen's masculine-feminine aesthetic is a recurring theme and she works it to perfection.
Madonna in Helmut Lang tank & Karen Walker wool trousers
There seem to be many a 'Lisbeth Salander' type look on the catwalk and in editorials, plus a wave of celebs are rocking the showcasing man-style look, from boy style like Evan Rachel Wood and Brit-packers Keira Knightly, Alice Dellal & Coco Sumner (aka Sting's model musician daughter), total androgyny like Tilda Swinton, Stella Tennant and Kristen McMenamy, to smouldering sexy looks like Victoria Beckham, Lake Bell and Helena Christensen. And tehn there's Alexa Chung, who experiments with both gamine and sexy suity looks. Here are some latest boy/man style looks below from celebs on the street plus some of the latest collections and editorials.
Hedi Slimane (pronounced Hedi Slim-aahn) is an amazing designer and photographer. He was born in Paris in 1968 to an Italian mother and Tunisian father who was a lightweight boxer. His mother was a seamstress and as a child, he would fall asleep on swathes of fabric as he watched her work. He went on to study Art History (same as me).
"Fashion = music + youth + sex.
This is what my menswear and my style were always about."
"When he was six, his sister's best friend used to entertain him with her impressions of David Bowie and Mick Jagger. Slimane got hold of Bowie's 1974 album David Live. The cover features the androgynous, skin-and-bones singer in an angular, narrow, cropped suit. Next he bought Angie by the Rolling Stones and a Vegas-period Elvis single, both with similarly dramatic covers. Stagewear became synonymous with menswear. "It was the only connection I knew with men's representation, even masculinity. David Bowie, for me, was the butchest guy in town. Jagger was like a truck driver." Thirty-odd years later Slimane designed stagewear for both.” The Guardian.
He worked an as assistant to Jean-Jacques Picard and in 1997 he was handpicked by Pierre Bergé to be Artistic Director of the Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche men's line.
Throughout the late 90's and the noughties, Hedi created a new zeitgeist for mens' fashion. Skinny was in. Hedi's insouciant, super-skinny suits with a rock & roll edge fast became a firm favourite with the glitterati including David Bowie, Jude Law (seenhere in Dior ad directed by Guy Ritchie), Jamie Hince, David Beckham, Slash, Kings of Leon, Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt, who wore a Slimane designed suit to his wedding to Jennifer Aniston.
Beckham in Dior Homme
Karl Lagerfeld is rarely out of Slimane designs - the inspiration for his dramatic weight loss was to fit into Hedi’s skinny designs. "I never suffered from being overweight. At the time, oversized Japanese fashion was all the rage. Call me a fashion victim, but when the pendulum swung back to skinny-fits I simply shrunk to follow the trend. I lost 200 pounds to wear suits by Hedi Slimane."
The androgynous cut of the suits made fans also of women such as Nicole Kidman, Linda Evangelista, Sharon Stone, Carine Roitfeld, Courtney Love, Sarah Jessica Parker, Helena Christensen, and Madonna. In 2000, he was appointed Creative Director for Dior Homme.
Dior Homme
Hedi with Helena Christensen
Nicole Kidman in Dior Homme
Victoria Beckham copies Slimane-style in Gucci suit & Dior Homme tie
During his time at Dior Couture the company reported an increase in profits in 2002, despite a poor world economy. In September 2001, he was awarded the Man of the Year Award for emerging talent by the American GQ.
Agyness Deyn in Henry Holland slogan Tee
Dior Homme 2005-2006
"Slimane is said to have transformed the male silhouette. He produced jackets that were cut short, with narrow, square shoulders, and teamed them with very skinny trousers – exquisitely made, super-tight tailoring that was designed with rock stars in mind, but was greeted with so many standing ovations on the catwalk he is proud to have documented the British music scene at an exciting time. ..And his passion for Pete Doherty remains undiminished. "I think he had a huge influence on youth, globally. His way of doing things was really romantic." He didn't mind that Doherty was off his head all the time His design work is best for the moment because is the most right for the moment" The Guardian
Pete Doherty
Hedi has said his designs come from his head, when he listens to a song and will design a whole collection around it. “I think about the characters, the allure, the walk, the proportion, the hair – it just makes sense from one song." Slimane's rock & roll style was shaped by musicians such as Patti Smith, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie & Ziggy Stardust and later Depeche Mode, Joy Division, Pulp, Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, The Drums, Phoenix, Kings Of Leon and Pete Doherty. "There is no fashion without music. Marie Antoinette knew better when she fetched Gluck to Versailles, to try her new wardrobe on the dance floor. Nothing will ever change. Fashion = music + youth + sex. This is what my menswear and my style were always about."
Razorlight
Franz Ferdinand
In an interview earlier this year in Womens’ Wear Daily, Hedi slammed designers for cheapening their clothes by rolling them out onto red carpets. “The unfortunate outcome (of blogging and social networking) might be the obsession and collusion between the celebrity culture and high fashion. It is just a big global mess of random endorsement. Nothing looks worse than a dress or a suit on a red carpet. It is an ongoing tragedy of cheap fashion on cheap celebrities, followed by ubercheap comments.” Hedi has now turned to photography and has an amazing eye, as the photos below attest. His photography is monochromatic, smouldering, sexy, androgynous and edgy - like his designs. "I like well-made, authentic clothes, well-crafted tailoring" he said. "I also like the dream and fantasy of luxury, the exception and rarity of it. I have no interest at all in fast retail. It is ambiguous." Here are a few of my of favourite images by Hedi Slimane.
Just look at Bianca Jagger (below) when she married Mick Jagger in that amazing white YSL fitted suit, sans shirt. Diane Keaton launched a massive trend with her Annie Hall look in the 70's and model and Chanel muse Inès de la Fressange.
Inès (below) has mastered boyish yet sexy gamine look. One of her style icons is Katherine Hepburn " or simply somebody that looks comfortable. Anyone who wears men's clothes and looks feminine is also very stylish."
Kate Moss
Victoria Beckham
Kate Moss
Victoria Beckham
Kate Bosworth
Leighton Meester rocking man style suits
Evan Rachel Wood
Alexa Chung
Coco Sumner
Alice Dellal
Freja Beha Erichsen
Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in W Magazine
Tilda Swinton for W Mag, August 2011
Giselle of Vogue China
Stella Tennant for Vogue UK, July 2011
Kristen McMenamy, Vogue UK August 2010
Tom Ford Collection, 2011
