Cross-Dressing at Fashion Week

Although few of the attendees at Elise Overland's SS10 show Sunday were the wiser, there was something off about the last look shown on Overland's runway. It's not that the show, chock-full of sumptuous leather cocktail dresses, slick leather-paneled leggings and stunning silk creations, was a miss as far as the clothes were concerned. Simply, the last model who strutted the runway was indeed a man (albeit one moonlighting as a woman with fake boobs, high-heels and slicked back hair). And Overland isn't alone this season when it comes to dabbling in cross-dressing.

Thom Browne‘s mermaid-inspired menswear show, which took place over the weekend, included male models in lipstick and a few arguably androgynous looks like a floor-length jacket that gave the impression of a dress. Designer Rad Hourani, the Montreal native whose aesthetic tendencies immediately call to mind Rick Owens, put forth a SS10 collection yesterday at Milk Studios that was made up entirely of unisex pieces. In turn, male models were outfitted in 4-inch heels (pictured here) which, for more than a few of them, apparently took some getting used to. Who knew Karl Lagerfeld’s nude images of Baptiste Giabiconi in “prostitute shoes” for Purple Fashion were so ahead of the game?