Destination unisex
Saint Laurent’s blockbuster show on the Hudson river last week (picture the Sex and the City skyline, updated by 20 years), was predominantly a menswear show, with a smattering of women’s looks. But Saint Laurent’s aesthetic has become so gender fluid that women often shop the menswear and get the in-house tailors to tweak where necessary.
Maybe they won’t need alterations in future.
The boys in this show were as skinny as the girls. I don’t normally report on menswear and I was taken aback in the same way that civilians are at womenswear shows, by how skinny the models were. My neighbouring male editors were blasé. “Young boys are often naturally very skinny,” one commented. “None of their stomachs were actually concave”.
So, the new norm then. But back to the clothes. Dark denim drainpipes, narrow smoking jackets – slightly more nipped in and less boxy than in Hedi Slimane’s day – jewelled tuxedos and bandannas, leather safari tunics, perfect sand coloured suede bombers and lizard cowboy boots with mid-height heels – they all looked perfectly at home on both women and men. Apart from a few marquee names such as Kaia Gerber, it was often difficult to distinguish either sex. At the after-party, on a boat cruise around Manhattan, boys with slicked back hair and glittery eyelids twirled their gilt-chained Saint Laurent shoulder bags, while the female models slouched around sans make-up.
Fashion has been on a unisex journey since the Seventies. It may finally have arrived at its destination.