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How Do I Wear the Menswear Trend?

There are a lot of menswear pieces out there, but it's an art pulling the look off. Here are some tips to pull it all together without sacrificing your personal style.

Incorporating menswear into your look should always have a clean, polished effect. You never want to look like you actually stole your father's or boyfriend's pieces and threw them on. While the boyfriend blazer, as shown in Alexander Wang's Spring/Summer 09 collection, above, is a more relaxed fit, it does skim the body rather than be enormously oversized. And the shorts, businesslike in every way except their diminuative size, are the perfect companion to the oversized jacket. 

Many designers showed menswear in their spring 2009 collections aside from Wang, including Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, Max Mara, Ralph Lauren and Escada. Taking direct cues or only slightly gleaning from the silhouttes, menswear added a decidedly fall feel to the spring collections, a season usually dominated by florals and ruffles. Stylemakers like Katie Holmes, Kate Lanphear and Aygness Deyn have been sporting the trend for a while, but it's taken some time to catch hold in the zeitgeist of spring.

Especially in a season where designers showed skirts for men and Marc Jacobs wore a skirt for his exit at the end of his show, the difference between female clothing and male apparel is becoming less distinguished.

Adding a soupcon of menswear into your wardrobe will inject a refreshing insouciance if your look has become too done or has been overthought to the point of staleness. Think the ever-ubiquitous boyfriend blazer, loose trousers and harem pants, oversized white v-necks (done in gauzy, slightly sheer fabrics make them right for women), thick silver or gold watches (these make great but still low-key statement pieces) and, of course, baggy jeans. Ms. Holmes hasn't been the only one to throw these on with stilettos and now they are literally everywhere.

Instead of neutrals, which are too strict of an interpretation, try menswear in brights or pastels. A navy blazer can look sloppy or uninspired, but a buttercream one? Brilliant. Keep everything else sleek if you're going to do lots of volume with a blazer or trousers, and keep accessories to a minimum (or you can load on the  bangles or chains--just definitely don't pair dainty jewels with this look). Borrowing from the boys is definitely a step in the right (chic) direction.

How do you wear it?

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Photo courtesy www.style.com