Naomi Campbell may have killed it while walking in Givenchy's Spring 2016 collection for men, but her appearance brings up the question: what are women, wearing womenswear, doing in the middle of a menswear show? There are actually plenty of viable reasons that we saw more women than ever walk in major men's shows this season, including Craig Green, Saint Laurent, Burberry, and Gucci, according to an interesting piece on the topic from Business of Fashion.
A panel of experts in the industry, made up of editors, buyers, and stylists, cited the ability to present a more cohesive brand identity, the growing androgyny trend, and, of course, saving and making money as reasons designers mixed women into the men's collections. The most given answer had to do with the fact that designers could present their Resort collections at a time when buyers are looking to get them into stores. Designers either have the chance to show the collection again, or axe the separate resort show entirely. "It's certainly cheaper than staging a big resort show in some far away locale," says Josh Peskowitz, the men's fashion director at Bloomingdales.
Others are more optimistic that the move is a social one and not entirely business-oriented. "With men becoming more feminine and women becoming more masculine, this androgynous development is allowing for one concise, powerful message from the designers," says the buying director at Mytheresa.com, Justin O'Shea.
Whatever the reason is, we aren't going to say no to the addition of women on men's runway, especially if it's "a compliment to how big the men’s market is becoming," as Peskowitz sees it.
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