Tuesday, November 05, 2013

his and her no more.......

I think I might need help.*

Over the past few weeks I’ve bought three new shirts. A blue denim, a black acid wash denim and a red and blue tartan in case you were wondering, and they all came from the menswear department.

What started as a bit of sartorial expression, an over-sized shirt here, some slouchy pants there, has morphed into a outright infatuation. And now I barely give lady-land a cursory glance before pawing through the racks of button up shirts and trousers searching for my new favourite.

It’s even infiltrated what I thought was the untouchable domain of shoes. I want man shoes. I want loafers and brogues and chunky sneakers. We’ve conquered the shirts and the pants, so shoes is the next logical step right?

Where once I stared at the likes of Nicholas Kirkwood and Brain Attwood, (often with a little drool dripping down my chin - hey I’m only human), now I’m more likely to spend my spare time at Mr Porter, with my eyes firmly fixated on the likes of John Lobb. Have you see these patent leather slippers??. Or Armando Cabral. Oh those brushed suede tasselled loafers.

Sigh. 

Maybe it’s the boxy over-sized unisex silhouettes that have stomped down the runways these past few seasons, see Celine, Comme des Garcons, Stella McCartney, Yohji Yamamoto, Loewe - need I go on?

Where once the wearing of menswear may have been a subversive bucking of trends for us women-folk, it’s now made it’s way front and centre and shopping in man land just ain’t no real thing anymore.

Maybe, just maybe, the rules that previously bound us to our respective sexes and the garments assigned to them have become so blurred, thanks in part to those illustrious designers above no doubt, that we don’t have to divide our fashion between his and hers anymore.

Maybe that’s why I’m digging all that shiny patent leather and brushed suede on my feet.

Is this the real democratisation of fashion?

What do you think?

kb xx

*I'm kidding. Seriously.