Suits! No Skin or Sequins!

Are we finally in a time where sex does not need to be the center of fashion in the USA?

In the midst of Fall/Winter Fashion Week 2011 in New York City and it clear that two piece suits and very manly fashions are taking over the runway. We are used to watching models, malnourished and fragile, stroll down the runway in a scrap of fabric revealing a breast, twelve inch heels and sequins glued to a pair of fake lashes. Though the heels and fake lashes are still there, designers have been covering up their models and these models are looking rather empowered as they walk down the runway in fitted suits and jackets.

Classic American designer, Tommy Hilfiger, revealed his new collection yesterday in the main theatre. In a shocking twist to American fashion, the décolleté of none of his models was visible. Of the forty-one different looks that were presented on the runway, each of the models had herself covered all the way up to the neck. As the gateway to the bosoms, the décolleté provides that “appropriate” way for designers to show some skin. Instead of relying on sex and skin to make his collection appealing, Hilfiger has taken the classier approach to promote his line.

Hilfiger has a good understanding of what women want in the winter, to be cute and fashionable, but not freezing. Seriously, do you know anyone that would wear a sleeveless top and knee high skirt in January in the middle of a blizzard? No. Okay, maybe that dancer at Jiggles. Come on designers, yes, even you Marc Jacobs, realize that your wacko obsession with skin is degrading and a complete joke!


Instead of focusing on clothes that are coming down the runway, which you would think should be happening at a fashion show, photographers and audiences focus on the model’s breasts, hoping for a nipple to pop out at the end of the runway. For Hilfiger, it was his patterns, silhouettes, and styling that made his collection a success.

With three days left of New York Fashion Week, our eyes are on the runway to see what other designers have decided to cover up the chest of their models with clothing that is typically so masculine.