Men will wear women’s labels – but with one change

Women were borrowing from men’s wardrobes long before Diane Keaton knotted a tie beneath her vest in Woody Allen’s 1977 movie Annie Hall, but now men are raiding the wardrobes of female friends for jackets and sweaters with an extra edge. Seeing an opportunity to offload more blazers and baggy pants, savvy Australian female fashion brands are opening their change rooms to everyone.

Since 2004 the tailored aesthetic of designer Margie Woods’ label Viktoria & Woods has appealed to female customers, but when its boxy blazers caught the eye of men, it introduced a unisex collection which has found its way onto the shoulders of a discerning clientele.

“Creating pieces for men has been brewing in the background for years because it makes sense with our sensibility of being sporty and laid-back,” Woods says. “Friends have been encouraging us but during the COVID-19 lockdown we found the courage to launch the unisex pieces.”

I tried one of Viktoria & Woods single-buttoned unisex blazers, which fit my 193 cm frame as easily as my traditional tailored suit jackets, with the only difference being an absence of pockets on the inside (where do women put phones and crumpled Mars Bars wrappers?) and the button fastening on the opposite side.

“We have had feedback on the buttons and will be making changes,” Woods says. “It’s funny because a woman wouldn’t think twice about a man’s button, they would embrace it. Women are happy to be androgynous but many men are still scared of being feminine. ”

For Nikki Campbell and Sophie Coote, founders of Sir the Label – which gained popularity in 2014 with floaty white linen dresses – they always suspected their tailored pieces and T-shirts would be popular with men. Then they checked their website analytics.

“When we saw that 15 per cent of visitors to our website were men, we knew we had to do something,” Campbell says. Last year the label released a capsule men’s collection featuring simple straight-leg white drill pants, asymmetric T-shirts and white linen shirts with drooping collars that nodded to the ’70s.

Following the success of the staples, Australian male supermodel Jordan Barrett was enlisted to collaborate on a unisex range packed with cargo flight pants, ribbed singlets and chunky cable-knit sweaters – perfect for watching the cricket from a sports bar that serves espresso martinis.