Street style during the menswear shows tends to bring out the best in the dapper male attendees, but it's the women who stand out. While some (like Anna Dello Russo and Caroline Issa) tend to keep their looks feminine, many get into the boy-meets-girl spirit with suits, ties, and brogues. Esther Quek, group fashion director for The Rake, takes that styling cue literally, often showing up for menswear shows in perfectly tailored three-piece suits complete with vest, tie, and pocket square. And while menswear is notorious for the ridiculous, many of this season's pieces were on-trend, handsome, and highly covetable — for women. Head-to-toe florals were big at Alexander McQueen, Comme Des Garçons, and 3.1 Phillip Lim. Mixed prints were also everywhere (in dot, leopard, tie-dye, and stripe forms) helping the models at Dries Van Noten, Dolce & Gabbana, and Lanvin look perfectly mismatched. Meanwhile Valentino and Raf Simons both showed beautiful, color-blocked jackets with sleek silhouettes that would look fantastic thrown over a black dress and finished with a pair of heels.
Other times it's an entire outfit that inspires lust, like the relaxed navy leather trousers at Hermès worn with a crinkled silk tee or Acne's fitted checkered sweater and slouchy trouser combo. Other times it's individual pieces, like Saint Laurent's form-fitting, sparkly leopard tuxedo jacket, which would look perfect on Kate Moss, or Dolce & Gabbana's oversized shimmery tweed top, just asking to be worn with jeans and stilettos. For all of the talk about "borrowing from the boys" style, spring 2014 menswear transcends gender lines by incorporating cuts, patterns, and colors into the pieces that suggest these pieces shouldn't be borrowed, rather stolen. See the looks we covet most in the slideshow below.
