All Babes are Wolves: Girls who are Boys who like Boys to be Girls

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Girls who are Boys who like Boys to be Girls

Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in W Magazine

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.