KEY POINTS:
Some fashion trends end up with the most annoying and confusing names. And boyfriend clothes is one of those, because it's the kind of phrase that makes you wonder exactly what the hell it means.
Initially, it seems to suggest raiding some bloke's wardrobe. Second thoughts suggest it
appears to involve bits of bloke's clothing, like baggy pants and tailored suit jackets. And then you start wondering how, in an age of androgyny, jeans and T-shirts, are you supposed to differentiate between boyfriend's clothes and girlfriend's - apart from the fact that men's shirts button from right to left and women's, vice versa.
Happily, it turns out that trendwatchers have a more definitive take on what boyfriend clothes mean. It has been almost a decade since androgyny was officially considered fashionable - possibly as far back as Helmut Lang's trouser suits in the mid 90s - but for the past season or two, international runway observers everywhere have been espousing manly looks for the ladies.
And a number of tomboyish girls manage to look effortlessly cool in these types of clothes. Director Sofia Coppola, actor Charlotte Gainsbourg and musician Meg White all come to mind. But for everyone else, there's always a danger of looking like we've just come from the costume department of the BBC's over-the-top historical lesbian drama, Tipping The Velvet.
But don't worry, because for the average woman on the street, some of these looks translate nicely into reality. The so-called boyfriend pant is a welcome antidote to the skinny trouser that has been dominating the stores lately. They're elegantly slouchy, high waisted, wide and flattering for those whose lower halves would never squeeze into a pair of stove pipes.
The main thing is not to come over like you want to grow a moustache when you're experimenting with these types of trousers because you don't want to be wearing all men's clothes. And you want boyfriend clothes specially made for women.
Locally, designers such as Jaimie Webster, Julia Fong and Karen Walker make examples of boyish clothes for girls. So you can certainly team these larger pants with a business shirt or tailored jacket - just not his. It should be a shirt or jacket that's cinched at the waist and fitting, tailored to suit a feminine figure.
Even easier options to add to the pants include pretty blouses with pussycat bows or puffed sleeves, cropped tailored jackets, waistcoats, tight striped T-shirts, lacy camisoles or cardigans and even slim fitting, boyish V-necks, it's all a question of balance.
The other direction in which boyfriend clothes manifest themselves is in an oversized upper half. Examples include long parkas - consider Kate Moss tossing a slouchy, scruffy number over a pretty dress - baggy jumpers with schoolboy V-necks, trench coats and oversized men's shirts and racer-back singlets for summer.
All these could be worn with either skinnier pants or a new season's shorter (even mini) skirt.
If none of that really floats your unisex boat, a variety of mannish accessories allow more traditionally feminine dressers to take part in the trend for boyfriend dressing without risk.
Flat shoes - ankle boots, plimsoll sneakers, brogues and coloured loafers - as well as men's ties, hats, braces, satchel bags, football, school and other men's scarves are among the examples.
And balancing the look doesn't just involve proportion or accessorising.
Slicked-back hair and schoolboy ties may be fine on the runway where it's all about creating an atmosphere and telling a story, but in the real world it's nice to hang on to your womanly virtues, hair soft, makeup pretty, jewellery glamorous or beautiful and maybe wearing some hot high heels under that tailored suit.
So yes, that's how you do boyfriend clothes over the next few seasons.
But will this high fashion confuse a potential suitor? Should the ladies looking for love simply stick to a little black dress and high heels, to not scare off any potential, conventional hubbies?
Well, after a brief and informal poll among a small gathering of fashionable blokes around a beer, the answer is no.
"It's sexy, like that wearing your T-shirt in the morning thing with no underwear," suggests one red-blooded chap.
"It's sexy because it's not obvious," adds another.
"If she wears your clothes, it means she likes you," says the last before noting that looser clothes mean, there's something to unravel.
So there you go. And it may also be worth remembering something the late actress, Katharine Hepburn, who was known for wearing men's pants and shirts in an incredibly stylish way, once said, "A woman can't always do what she needs in stockings".
