Fashion

Vivienne Westwood Put Men In Dresses at PFW

by Rikki Byrd

Paris Fashion Week has officially kicked off, bringing an end to the long, brutally cold Fashion Month that has unfolded on New York, London and Milan. Already, trends have been set for the coming seasons and the color of the year has been determined. Vivienne Westwood's ready-to-wear collection, which showed today, might have just introduced a refreshingly unisex approach to getting dress that could soon be added to the top of the fall 2015 trend round ups.

If you could imagine an episode of Game of Thrones mixed with Alice in Wonderland, then you can draft a pretty good image of the fantasy land that was Westwood's runway show. Glittery metallic streamers hung from the ceiling, some falling to cover the runway. Models' eyebrows were turned into unibrows, the #freethenipple movement was in full effect, and there were plenty new additions to those sky-high top hats that have become a defining fashion statement for Pharrell. Most notable, however, were the women in suits and men in dresses.

Women wore boxy plaid or striped suits with either heeled shoes or pointed-toe flats. Of course, it isn't uncommon for women to rock suits, sometimes better than men. However, it's not everyday that you see a muscular, tattoo-covered dude rocking a metallic manicure and corseted dress. But Vivienne Westwood might have just changed that. There weren't just men wearing kilts in a cool, hispter kind of way, but rather the male models rocked floor-length fringe skirts and belted dresses. To make sure the unisex message was very clear, Westwood walked the finale of her show with her husband and design partner, who wore a shirt that read "Unisex Time To Act."

By blurring gender lines and challenging gender norms, Westwood's outlook on fall doesn't involve pea coats and knee-high boots, but rather a magical take on androgyny. For fall, women can be just as chic in three-piece suits as they are in a cocktail dresses, and men can flex their muscles and show them off in glamourous dresses at the very same time.

Images: @ElleUK/Twitter