Fall Trend: Mens Inspired

Katie Holmes is in boyfriend jeans. Jennifer Aniston's in a tux. And the gang at Yves Saint Laurent is turning out unisex clothes meant to celebrate Everyman (or is it Everywoman?). If it seems that menswear inspiration is everywhere, it is, but it shouldn't come as a surprise. Women have been wearing pants in some way, shape or form for more than a century -- declaring menswear a feminist tool, a matter of comfort, or a statement of sophisticated style. Aniston combined all three at the LA premiere of "He's Just Not That Into You," wearing a sleek tux from Burberry. (This is word so word not your daddy's trench coat.)

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The first pants for women were actually underpants. Tired of the overwhelming, uncomfortable and restrictive layers of petticoats and corsets that Victorian women were forced to wear, the 19th-Century suffragist Amelia Jenks Bloomer proposed ankle-length undies to be worn under knee-length skirts. Alas, Bloomer's "bloomers" didn't really catch on until after her death in 1894. Another renegade with a modern interpretation of the concept: Angelina Jolie, at the Berlin premiere of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," wears a cream silk pantsuit by Akris.

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Plus ça change: A T-shirt bearing the iconic Shepherd Fairey image of Barack Obama is sure way to make a fashion statement and a political one. At least, that's the way Jennifer Morrison saw things at an LA Inauguration soiree.

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In the 1890s, during America's cycling frenzy, "bicycle suits" for women were all the rage: baggy bloomers on bottom and, on top, fitted jackets with giant leg-o-mutton sleeves. We're not sure that Peter Som was nodding to the bicycle suit in his Bill Blass collection last year, but he certainly tweaked the late designer's signature mix of masculine fabrics and feminine shapes.

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When World War I sent men to European battlefronts, American women tied back their hair, pulled on their pants and marched into factories everywhere. A steely take on women-in-pants comes from Zac Posen, whose form-fitting suits are some of the sharpest on Seventh Avenue these days.

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She kissed a girl...and dressed like a boy. Katy Perry mixed it up in a white satin tux at the NJR Music Awards in Cannes earlier this year. Perhaps she was just borrowing a page from Marlene Dietrich, who scandalized Hollywood in 1930 by wearing a tuxedo (and kissing a woman) in the film "Morocco." Soon enough, women everywhere were adding gender-bending clothes to their wardrobes.

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What makes America run? During World War II, it was women, who were so fiercely embedded in the workforce that the poster of Rosie the Riveter in coveralls became the iconic image of a generation. Not surprisingly, with 18 million women working, they brought along touches that were as feminine as Rosie's polka-dot scarf. A generation later, Diane von Furstenberg shows a perfect balance of masculine and feminine. Here, she borrows belted jackets and wide-legged trousers from the guys.

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In 1961, Audrey Hepburn had every American woman trying to replicate her refreshingly gamine style -- not just beehives and pearls, but capri pants and ballerina flats. At last spring's CFDA Awards, Ashley Olsen looked perfectly Holly Golightly in a tuxedo by Calvin Klein, overshadowing the rest of the glamazons in yards of sequins and tulle.

For a weekend in the country, women have always reached into their boyfriends' closets -- like these velvet pants and vest pairings by Carolina Herrera. Don't hunt for anything more than a bargain? Not to worry. Weekend wear these days is defined by denim. And though the sturdy stuff started out as the fabric of choice for laborers, by 1935, denim pants made the pages of Vogue; by the '60s, jeans were for hip young things of both sexes.

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Yves Saint Laurent stunned the fashion world in 1966 when he introduced "Le Smoking," a sultry and feminine take on the man's tuxedo. At a moment when the Beatles were rocking the music world and Twiggy was revolutionizing beauty, YSL redefined every notion of sophisticated dressing. The look, embraced by chic woman from Catherine Deneuve to Bianca Jagger, has endured for more than four decades, in long versions and short, in dreses, jumpsuits and pants. At last year's CFDA Awards, held the day after the designer's death, Diane von Furstenberg honored him in a tribute that she delivered while wearing a classic "Le Smoking."

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