Wearing Your Man’s Clothes (Or Fragrance Or Ski Boots)

Image by justgrimes via Flickr

Annie Hall did it in 1977 — wearing trousers and a white shirt and a man’s hat. Women borrowing their guys’ clothing is a perennial favorite.

Recent issues of Vogue and Elle suggest borrowing everything from his leather messenger bag to his gray flannel vest to a cobalt blue V-neck sweater.

Writes Joe Zee:

When it comes to the age-old sport of clothes-nabbing, my role has always been easy: the innocent bystander who listens and
spectates. The girls get together, compliment one another, “borrow” from one another, and then call me to complain that they don’t think they’ll ever see their things again. Now, for the first time it looked as though I was about to be the victim of closet robbery, and I didn’t like it one bit. I stopped my friend as she approached the door, my favorites in hand.

“No, not cool,” I said. “I wear those things all the time. Plus, they won’t fit you. And why do you want my clothes, anyway?”

“I’m doing the oversize men’s look that Rihanna’s been pulling,” she said.

“Can’t you get your own white shirts and blazers?”

“Not the same. There’s something about real men’s clothes from a guy’s closet that’s so much better.” And with that declaration, she was gone, clothing and all.

The dressing tables had been officially turned.

I liked Vogue’s picks better, including pajamas, a bucket hat, a watch and fragrance. My favorite watch is a 1920s silver man’s watch I bought in a London flea market and I’ve long loved 108-year-old Blenheim Bouquet, officially a man’s scent from the British firm Penhaligon’s.

I’ve almost always dated shorter, smaller men, most of them stylish. One was small enough I could even borrow his ski boots.

I deeply coveted half of my sweetie’s wardrobe the first time I saw his stuff — a crisp white collar-less shirt, a charcoal sweater and the khaki-colored Nautica cotton jacket he almost never gets to wear because I love it so much. I’ve borrowed everything from his black polypro ski underwear to his sweatshirts.

The night we met he took off the red silk Tibetan prayer shawl he was wearing as a muffler and gently wrapped me up in it. It smelled of 1881, his cologne, and was warm from his skin.

Worked for me.

What clothing of your man’s do you wear?

Gentlemen, is any of it off limits to your women?