Menswear is booming, says SHOWStudio's Lou Stoppard, and it's been cavorting with womenswear for a long time. 

There’s always been something special about girls who wear menswear. Think of Annie Hall. Or model-of-the-decade Freja Beha Erichsen. Or those countless ‘sexy’ ads with girls in their boyfriends’ shirts.  For S/S 13, upcoming Milan-based talent Umit Benan even named his menswear collection ‘I Once Loved a Woman Who Loves Menswear’. He’s not alone in his passion. Recent runways have been littered with ‘boyish’ elements, see Simone Rocha’s brogues, Stella McCartney’s pinstripes for A/W 13 or the slouchy, oversized tailoring in Clare Waight Keller’s Resort 14 collection for Chloe. Even the diehard girly girls within the fashion pack have embraced androgynous elements. Victoria Beckham put her models in – whisper it – flats and buttoned-up collars for S/S 13.

It’s no secret that menswear’s booming at the moment. With the arrival of London Collections: Men and the rising prominence of exciting young designers like Christopher Shannon, James Long and Shaun Samson, the men’s market is starting to look so much more energetic than the women’s.  That dynamism is reflected in the sales – last year, the 10th edition of Bain & Company’s luxury goods worldwide market study showed that the men’s luxury goods market is outperforming women’s in all categories. 

When it kicked off for the first time in June 2012, the striking thing about LC:M was how whole-heartedly it reflected how men actually dress. Packed with everything from Savile Row tailoring to streetwear, the diversity it offered was a strong contrast from the continued focus on cocktails dresses and eveningwear seen on lots of the runways at LFW. Maybe that gap in the market explains why recently we’ve seen a rise in cool ‘unisex’ sportswear labels, think Brian Lichtenberg or that Comme des Fuckdown phenomenon – someone needed to provide ‘on-trend’ clothes that women can actually wear in real life. 

Functionality has always underpinned the way in which menswear has influenced womenswear. “The first man-tailored garments worn by women was riding dress - thus attired they have been described as 'dashing amazons!” explains fashion historian, curator and Chanel expert Amy de la Haye. Naturally, the practicality and ease of this activewear soon found a champion in a high fashion context. “Chanel was a keen horsewoman who defied gendered conventions by refusing to ride side saddle. Equestrian influences can be discerned in her earliest collections, from about 1917. The functionality and aesthetic of menswear, including trousered dress, influenced her collections for the rest of her life. And, in turn inspired women worldwide and other fashion designers too. Would YSL have designed his famous le smoking without Chanel - I doubt it.”

"Functionality has always underpinned the way in which menswear has influenced womenswear."

But as much as the earliest appearances of menswear elements in women’s wardrobes were about giving female clothing a more practical, relevant bent it was about liberation. Twenties flappers may look girlish to us now, but at the time their short hair, lean figures and drop waists were the epitome of androgyny. Caroline Evans, Professor of Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins sites Well of Loneliness author Radclyffe Hall – who favoured men’s suits and chapeaus - as a symbol of the way in which masculine dress could be used to provoke and push established gender expectations.

While women's clothing during the war and the tumultuous interwar period reflected their new-found freedoms and the surrounding gender upheaval, the years after saw a vogue for traditional silhouettes that could have been plucked from the 18th century. 'Feminine men' and 'boyish girls' became symbols of unrest and just as women were encouraged back into the home by the press and political authorities they were also reminded of their place via the collection on the runways. Dior's New Look from 1947 with its clinched-in waists and full skirts - the antithesis to rationing dressing – ushered in the return of decorative, opulent dressing. Since then, icons from Marylyn Monroe to John Galliano, with his love of romance, have kept pure femininity alive in fashion. The appeal of androgyny has ebbed and flowed, but the impact of a show-stopping meringue gown has never waned, at least not in the mind of high fashion couturiers and designers.

But, if ever there was a sign that we’re now feeling more Radclyffe Hall in spirit, it’s in fashion’s recent personnel shuffles. Two of the most high-profile womenswear appointments have seen menswear designers put in the top jobs – Raf Simons at Dior and Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent - a true sign that womenswear bigwigs are trying to capture a bit of the magic that’s happening in the men’s market. But that seems a wise move given that even the hottest young talent on everyone’s lips, J.W Anderson, was trained in menswear and started his business that way. Predictably, these designers have paired down the femininity of their houses. At his debut couture collection for Dior Simon’s put his girls in simple evening suits – an updated version of the iconic archive Bar jacket – while Slimane replaced Stefano Pilati’s lilies and capes with grungy checked boyfriend shirts. 

"Twenties flappers may look girlish to us now, but at the time their short hair, lean figures and drop waists were the epitome of androgyny."

Is the current appeal of mannish clothes a sign that women are fighting the prejudices and preconceptions still put on their sex? Maybe. But frankly, it’s more likely that, in a similar vein to Chanel, we’ve all just cottoned on to the fact that a mannish blazer or oversized knit is far more comfortable than a pencil skirt, and doesn’t make us look any less impressive in the board room, or any less attractive when out and about.  No longer is the appearance of menswear elements on womenswear runways about dressing like men to make ourselves powerful, it’s about being comfortable. Women have been shoehorned into back-breaking, ankle-spraining, breast-squashing looks for too long – corsets, heels and micro minis now look so dated when pitted against a simple cashmere t-shirt or a Nike trainer. 

Ironically, as women are embracing comfort and daywear, it’s men that are becoming the decorative peacocks, see Hedi Slimane’s effeminate aliens, Martine Rose’s frills or Dries Van Noten’s florals and embellishments. For stylist Celestine Cooney this whole process is a sign of our all-accepting attitude to gender. ‘Society is changing its attitudes to male and female sexuality and I think that’s the revolution that’s becoming more apparent in the world of fashion,’ she explains, ‘Its about freedom in a way - the ability to break out of the mould. Boys with boys with girls with boys with girls with girls, anything goes in the Western world.’

But for Caroline Evans, this gender bending is old hat. ‘What we are seeing now is nothing new. If you look at the after-war period there becomes a link between fashion and music. But really you get androgyny well before David Bowie. Think of Mick Jagger in Hyde Park in that white frilly shirt. All that play on gender was about performance. That druggy made-up look…that fashion for very skinny men – we’ve seen it before.’ Indeed, it makes Slimane look a bit old hat. But then again, other than on the Saint Laurent runway with that thumping music and theatrical lighting, that performative aspect seems to be missing. What we’re seeing now isn’t the same as that deliberate provocative androgyny of the nineties, with all that Calvin Klein heroin chic, instead this is pragmatic androgyny. You could say it’s not about gender at all, just shopping. After years of being the forgotten sex in fashion, men are finally getting the opportunity to have some fun – hence the frills and frivolity – while women, partly inspired by the recession but also driven by their hectic multi-tasking lives, are ever-increasingly looking for timeless label-less pieces. Aside from those J.W Anderson frilly shorts, few of the ‘girlish’ elements on the recent menwear runways, or the flats and suits on the womenswear catwalks, look like they’re there with the aim to shock. This is just about choice – something for everyone. How modern.