Sharpen Up

Why 'ladylike' never catches on.

With the catwalks urging us to embrace feminine style, madison's Alexandra Carlton asks why we're so reluctant to dress like women.

When did women start dressing like men? Not entirely like men of course - few of us wear three-piece-suits or cummerbunds or boxer shorts on an ordinary day at the office. But what was it that first compelled us, seemingly en masse, to never leave the house without adding a masculine edge to everything we wear? Don't even think about a floral dress unless you go a bit gutsy with an ankle boot or a blazer. Lacy knits need to be offset with a leather pant. Punch up your pretty. Ladylike, unless it's toughened by a bit of rough, is just too much.

Every year, designers attempt to subvert this collective way of thinking. "Ladylike" style is one of those fashion evergreens that pops up in every cycle - with magazines and blogs compelling us to add demure pencil skirts and lace-lined blouses and court shoes to our existing wardrobe of slouchy pants and basic grey t-shirts.

This year though, the catwalks, led by Prada and Louis Vuitton, really rammed the point home. Both designers wholly celebrated the double X chromosome without even a flicker of edginess to offset the girlishness. It was all about circle skirts, d'ecolletage, kitten heels, curves and pretty colours. Unapologetically so.

The question will be whether anyone can bring themselves to actually wear the trend. The problem, it would seem, is that there's something about frilly and pretty and lacy and sweet that tweaks a neural reaction for most of us that equates to "naive" or "childish". Or worse, unsexy.

Perhaps it's a feminist throwback - a shadow of 80s powersuits or the 1940s when women first began to take jobs from the boys. From that moment, did we decide womanly was weak? 

The only country who occasionally accepts the look is the US. There, women pride themselves on looking "cute". Their dressing is literal, often unadorned by the ironic twists - boyish brogues or a rock-star t-shirt - favoured by Australian women. In the US, you can wear a spotted sundress, white sandals and an Alice band and no one will bat any eye.

Perhaps it's time we rethought things. Why should pretty be priggish? Why don't we listen to our wisers and betters - in the form of Miuccia Prada and Marc Jacobs - and really give this look a try?

I'm going to! Pass me my pearls.