Menswear styles for women balance sexy strength

NEW YORK -- There's something about menswear tailoring -- whether it's a trim suit or rolled worksleeves -- that crafts a strong silhouette. On a woman, the look might be even more powerful.

The borrowed-from-the-boys style certainly isn't new, but the fashion world has evolved in the current season it so that it allows women to keep their curves and feminine flair, while tapping into men's unfussy clothes.

It's that contrast that oozes cool, says designer Nicole Miller. It's sexy, too, she adds, because the look suggests that there is indeed a boyfriend or a husband in the wearer's life, and that she has 24-hour access to his closet.

Peter Som, who went heavy with skirt suits in his fall collection, says he recently attended a wedding, where the woman wearing the tuxedo suit got the most attention from the opposite sex. She accessorized with strappy Manolo Blahnik stiletto sandals and a clutch purse -- and nothing underneath her impeccably tailored jacket. "You want that look of effortless ease," he says.

It is pretty easy: "It is practically a uniform," Som says. "Ultimately there's a very strict template and that's appealing to almost everybody."

Designers who infused their fall runways with a hint of Savile Row include Dolce & Gabbana, Prabal Gurung, The Row, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren.

"Fit is No. 1," adds Som. He advises nothing too loose or too baggy, a defined waist and a perfect hem on the pants.

Som picks out Carolina Herrera, who almost always wears a crisp white menswear-style shirt to take her bow at the end of her fashion shows, as someone who always gets the look right. He calls her "one of the chicest women around."

Som has built his own wardrobe around that button-down, and a woman can do it, too, he says. "There are infinite combinations. You can wear it for evening, for day -- it's a matter of how you accessorize."

It's the wearability of this style that gives it broad-based, long-lasting appeal, says Joanna Coles, editor-in-chief of Marie Claire. She says she wouldn't call it trendy because it's really built on longevity, but the blazer is a must-have item of this season.

She likes it best with the sleeves pushed up above the elbow, giving just that little glimpse of skin. "I like that it can be masculine, androgynous and feminine all at the same time," she says.

Miller says she'll often put together -- both on the runway and in her personal life -- a very girlish dress with a jacket. A similar pairing of a tuxedo jacket and a beaded miniskirt also works great, she adds.

The mashup, she says, adds "dimension."

Her favorite menswear piece is an old leather Claude Montana jacket. It was from the men's department, and she bought the same one in suede as well. "I wore them to death. Somehow they seemed cooler since they were real guys' jackets," Miller says.

Mimi Fukuyoshi, director of menswear of the upscale online retailer GiltMAN, prefers men's jeans (especially her APC ones) because she likes their simpler construction -- no darts or angled pockets. It doesn't hurt that men's garments are also often less expensive, especially casual clothes.

But she doesn't trust herself to break them in. She asks her dad to do that. "Women can never break in their jeans like boys do. I don't really think the average guy is rolling around in the mud, but even a guy working in an office environment can break in their denim better."

One time, she handed off to her father a new pair of jeans -- they wear the same size, she says -- and asked him to wear them as often as possible and not to wash them. "When he gave them back to me, they were perfect."

Fukuyoshi says she's not a tomboy, at least not every day. "My style is sometimes 100 percent girl, and on those days, I'm all dresses and heels. Or, I'm 100 percent boy in my K-Swiss-Billy Reid sneakers and a button-down men's shirt."

If she had to wear a suit to the office, she'd again go for a man's cut because the emphasis is on fabric, tailoring and overall quality, instead of some trendy design element. she explains.

Marie Claire's Coles brings it back to the strength, though. "There's a great freedom for women to wear menswear. It's permission to focus on work at work, and permission to focus on being casual on weekends. It's very liberating," she says.