Anoraks and sneakers on the runway: Have designers stopped oversexualizing women?

(c) 2015, The Washington Post.

(EDITORS: Robin Givhan, The Washington Post's Pulitzer-winning fashion critic, is covering New York Fashion Week. Follow her on Twitter: @robingivhan.)

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NEW YORK — The set for designer Thom Browne's whimsical spring 2016 show centered on a skeleton of a one-room schoolhouse that appeared to have crash-landed in Chelsea atop a wingtip wearing Wicked Witch. Underneath it's pitched roof, built from wooden two-by-fours, rows of tidy desks awaited its all-girl class of pupils.

Models wandered into this spare set one by one, at a slow and precise pace. This was not a collection that could be rushed. There was far too much to see; there was nothing minimal or restrained about Browne's clothes.

He had been inspired by Japan and the iconography of its landscape, traditions and history. He referenced cherry blossoms and geishas, koi ponds and cranes. All of it was intricately delivered in the form of exquisitely tailored blazers and coats, pleated skirts and calf-skimming white shirts. They were ostentatiously deluxe — an eye-popping display of luxurious fabrics such as silk faille, guipure lace, sheared mink and astrakhan. Garments that looked as though they were appliqued or embroidered had been constructed through the pain-staking art of intarsia, in which fabrics are inlaid to form elaborate patterns and images.

Browne created fields of flowers, undulating horizons, birds and whole landscapes that sent the imagination reeling.

He worked in gray and white, but also in celadon and pale blue. The jackets sat close to the shoulders and skimmed the body. They were not tight or waist-cinching. His skirts were often layered over longer shirts and his shoes were mostly flat with tiny block platforms at the heel and under the ball of the foot.

The beauty of these looks were in the clothes themselves, not in the way in which they interacted with the body. To be clear, the clothes fit beautifully. But they are not body conscious, neither tight nor revealing. The clothes are artful, and the body serves as the equivalent of a gallery wall — a place for them to live and be seen and appreciated.

Browne 's womenswear aspires to excellence in idea and execution. And most often, as he does for spring 2016, the designer accomplishes what he sets out to do. His aesthetic leanings are unique among designers who present their collections in New York, but he is not an outlier in eschewing silhouettes that put the female form into a vise or set it atop a pair of perilously high heels.

A host of designers are taking that stance. But what is intriguing is that most of them are men.

Critics of fashion have longed bemoaned the intrusiveness of the male gaze. They have argued — sometimes rightfully so — that the fashion industry and its male designer treat women as objects that must be decorated, sexualized or infantilized.

But today, that argument has become more complicated. Browne certainly does his share of artful dressing-up with his Mary Poppins hats and gravity-defying braids. But he is an equal-opportunity "decorator." His menswear is also conceptual in its presentation.

One could argue that Carolina Herrera's pale pink organza gowns and her perfectly polished cocktail suits have the effect of setting women atop a pedestal like some china doll. Don't her spike-heeled shoes give women an unacceptable vulnerability? Or, coming from a female designer, is it simply about celebrating the sweet pleasures of femininity?

Tracy Reese created an exuberant collection that included some of the most enticing floral prints and rich colors of the season. But her collection also has a retro subtext thanks to her choice of fabrics and cuts. There is a hint of longing for a dressier, more sparkly past.

Victoria Beckham has loosened her silhouette from a tight-fitting sheath into dresses that are more relaxed and that use color, print or texture to lend them excitement. But one rarely sees hints of sportiness or athleticism in her collection — one of the most potent influences in fashion today.

And Diane von Furstenberg, who has long led a rallying cry for female empowerment, underscores that intent with models who walk with buoyancy and no small amount of delight in their own beauty, strength and great-looking legs.

It used to be that the fashion industry focused on crafting clothes that were revealing, tight or overtly sexy — or on perfect little jackets, ruffled necklines and pretty shades of pink. The clothes were meant to be worn by women to be admired by men.

Instead, as fashion moves resolutely forward, it is male designers who are most likely to offer women the kind of urban streetwear that is the evolutionary cousin to yoga pants, jeans and hoodies. Designers such as Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne of Public School, Rag & Bone's Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, Phillip Lim and Tim Coppens (who showed his women's wear in July alongside his men's collection) are offering an alternative to standard women's attire. They have had varying degrees of success, but nonetheless they are challenging the standard and suggesting that a woman can be sexy in a baseball jacket and basketball sneakers or in a fly-away anorak. Or that she frankly doesn't have to engage in the notion of sexy at all — at least not through her clothes.

Public School has only recently begun designing for women. In the past, when menswear designers turned their attention to women, they left their artful tailoring and love of elegant fabrics behind and turned their attention to slits and décolletage. Public School has instead offered women the same grounded, sporty clothes they create for men.

The Rag & Bone collection was unveiled at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn — one of those long jaunts from Manhattan that leave guests wondering: What's so special about this location? Well, it offered theater seating to accommodate several hundred members of the public who had won tickets to the show. And it was also an opportunity to have the Brooklyn Youth Chorus perform. (The singers sounded lovely but it was virtually impossible to see them tucked behind sheer curtains in a far corner of the runway. We want to see the kids!)

There were sliders and fries, popcorn and beer, and the whole mood of the event suggested: Relax. It's just clothes. And sure enough, the collection was dominated by simple knit dresses worn with basketball sneakers, cargo pants, tailored blazers and baseball jackets.

Phillip Lim celebrated the 10th anniversary of his 3.1 Phillip Lim collection with an installation by the artist Maya Lin. Called "Stop and Smell the Flowers," it featured seven mounds of soil and referenced the notion of regeneration. (The soil will be distributed to community gardens around the city.) Lim's collection is varied, with its open-back tops and organza shorts with paper-bag waists. But he, too, is focused on bomber jackets, pajama dressing and the like.

Fashion has always been a business overwhelmingly aimed at women but aesthetically driven by men. That dichotomy has been at the heart of the uneasiness so many consumers have about the business. Male designers continue to wield the most clout in fashion. But the male gaze is shifting. And men are leading the way.

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