Boyfriends are back.....

The New York Times April 14, 2009 By SUZY MENKES The Boyfriend Suit Makes a Comeback LONDON — Is it fashion’s passion for the 1980s? Or just a strong statement from women who have had enough of girly dresses? Whatever the reason, the pantsuit is back. But this time, it is a taut boyfriend jacket and slim trousers worn with hands plunged into hip pockets. International designers creating this strong trend include Stella McCartney, who has always made mannish tailoring a counterpoint to the pretty woman. Other female designers, from Hannah McGibbon at Chloé to the iconic Sonia Rykiel, have also come up with interpretations of the boy-girl thing. Male designers, too, have joined the re-vamping of the pantsuit. At Balmain, Christophe Decarnin has played with the soldier’s uniform and with wide-shouldered jackets, teaming them with super-tight jeans for a sexy, rock look. But it is the Gucci designer Frida Giannini who has rocked back to the 1980s to come up with a plausible style for day and night. When Vogue held a party in London this month to fete the designer, the look on stage said it all: a white, bold-stripe suit with a late 1980s vibe. This sharp tailoring was worn by a man: Richard Ashcroft, formerly the lead singer of The Verve, rocking with his greatest hits. The female fashion counterpoint at the event was Claudia Schiffer in a black cropped pantsuit that exuded female power. Ms. Giannini admits that she is dedicated to the androgynous ’80s — its fashion and its music. “Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet — when I was 14, listening to music was an obsession — and now I live with music morning to night,” says the designer, 36, who has a collection of 8,000 vinyl records and has brought rock chic to Gucci. Ms. Giannini was in London to celebrate the makeover of Gucci’s store on London’s upper-crust Sloane Street. “It’s about light — the old Gucci stores were so dark,” said the designer, in a veiled criticism of Tom Ford’s reign at the Italian house as fashion’s “dark knight.” “I opened the windows so that there is an interact with the city and you — the red bus in London and the yellow cab in New York,” she added. “Today, it is not only about a global world.” But globe-trotting is part of Ms. Giannini’s life. After moving Gucci’s headquarters from Florence to her native Rome, which she sees as Italy’s Bohemian, artistic and film capital, her world tour continues. Next stop is Japan, where she picks up an award; and then China, where she will open another new flagship in Shanghai. Ms. Giannini has been at Gucci since 2002, first as an accessories designer under Ford and ultimately ascending to the top job. Dressed in a tunic dress and her favorite leggings, her hair flat around a pixie face, she seemed like a prototype of a client who wants sleek, modern clothes as a backdrop to well-crafted accessories — not least those famous Gucci bags. But the image is not, the designer insists, all about her. “I never like to refer to myself — I don’t want to be my muse,” she claims, citing as inspiration strong women like the photographer Lee Miller or the fashion icon Tina Chow, whom she sees as artists and pioneers. Fashion’s power woman re-visited is a figure who is strong, confident and “always has a masculine side,” says Ms. Giannini — hence the tailoring that the designer sees as part of Gucci’s DNA. With her management-speak about “core values,” “visual merchandising” and the “huge opportunity for growth” she sees in accessories, jewelry and shoes, Ms. Giannini sounds more like a marketing director than a creative force. But she has an ability to hit on the mood of the moment, whether it is the new advertising campaign she is shooting in London with the photographic duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin or her “fetish,” thigh-high boots. Now that she is also designing the men’s collections, Ms. Giannini says that Gucci needs “the boy and girl — it’s important to create this kind of couple.” Her rock chic pantsuit is also a subtle challenge to the era of celebrity gowns. “I don’t care about the red carpet,” she says. “At this moment it is much more interesting to have a rock star wear my clothes.”