Gender Bender – Tom Ford Womenswear

One of the most highly-talked-about collections in the recent slew of women’s fashion shows has been the Tom Ford’s first eponymous womenswear collection, and I must say it’s interesting.  I’m not sure it’s my favorite of the women’s collections, but it did get me thinking about menswear, womenswear and the relationship between the two.

Some designers seem to just tack their menswear onto the women’s collection, while others try to unite them in a cohesive “brand vision” of sorts.  Vuitton, specifically, does a great job creating an overall image, while maintaining distinctly masculine and feminine feels to their respective garments.  Then there are houses such as Chloe and Celine making wonderful clothing for women, but we men can only sit back and admire the artistry.  No Chloe boots or draped trenches for us.  Yet.

It’s this “yet” that seems to always come back to haunt these unisex designers.  Thom Brown only designed for men…until he was pestered into designing a women’s collection.  Which, incidentally, turned out to be mostly men’s tailoring sized for women.  But for Mr. Ford, who most of us know for his classically inspired but thoroughly modern menswear, designing womenswear was a return.  Lest we forget that he saved Gucci/YSL in the 90s and early 00s with a string of larger-than-life women’s collections.

So maybe this Friday morning musing doesn’t really have a point, but check the collection out here and let me know what you think.  There is something about watching a women’s runway show that I still find enchanting.