by Cheryl Barnette

Created on: December 15, 2010   Last Updated: December 29, 2010

Since the dawn of time, women have been subjected to the whims and dictates of the male sense of what sexy is. Circa Raquel Welch in the movie One Million, B.C., who had strategically placed animal-skins over her naughty parts, and sent men of the 1960s and 1970s wishing for a more palentoic and prehistoric time of fashion. Women have struggled to contort their bodies to the ideas and dictates of a masculine dictate, but they know all too well what they love to see on their own bodies, despite overwhelming cries of misogyny from women’s groups or feminist wiles.

When a woman looks good, she feels good. She receives complimentary eye contact from whoever she encounters, and if it’s on a daily basis, it’s all the more flattering. Fashion is a sort of dress-up time for the feminine sect, a time when we look for flair and recall days of wearing mom’s high heels, and loving the way Auntie Marianne looked in her men’s jacket with the pushed-up sleeves.

In the western part of civilization anyway, we know all too well that when that sweater fits us in a particular way, or those jeans hug our curves in just the right “fashion”, then all is well with the world.  Alas, the Diane Keatons and the Kate Hepburns of the fashion world with their masculine attire made voluminous statements with such scant material as a collar and a tie, but it somehow appeared regal. They donned hats and baggy pants that made them “hip, cool and sexy” despite the masculine fashion sentiment. There is just something so sensually paradoxical when it comes to that masculine hint of material that made these haute couture icons stand out. After all, when Diane donned the dapper hats and suspenders, ties and such, and Hepburn, especially in her earlier film career, wore those similar baggy pants and padded shoulders that erected an illusionary albeit creative posture, nipping in the waste, silhouetting glam and gloss, which shouted a very bold statement for women of that particular era, (and still does) the female population gave them a salutary thumbs up…

It spoke volumes and whispers to men that we can have power in our dress by stealing bits and pieces from your wardrobe, but guys, you’re not so lucky to borrow from our wardrobe. So ladies, try on a feminine fedora, a tantalizing tie, a jacket that cries out “boardroom basic.” Perhaps this slight shift gives men a jolt within their carnal library of knowledge, that lingering sensation that they are waking up next to their loves who are wearing the men’s tee shirts in a sensual pajama fashion from the night before of extreme erotic ecstasy, or the fond remembrance of a Playboy Bunny cover model with a classic white button-collared shirt with a tie and not much else. This look only enhances our feminine flair for the fantastic forum of fashion. And, it’s just plain fun!

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