Does fabric have an inherent gender? As menswear designers continue to surprise with their use of lace, floral silk, chiffon and bouclé, what does the use of textiles more commonly associated with womenswear mean? These materials aren’t merely attention-seeking runway showpieces: they are at the core of many collections.

面料分性别吗？男装设计师不断采用透孔织品、印花丝绸、薄绸以及仿羔羊呢(bouclé)等面料设计男装，让时尚界备感惊诧，他们用这些女装常用面料到底想干什么？这些面料不仅仅是T型台上万众瞩目的对象，还是众多时装的根本所在。

So is it a case of novelty, subversion or part of a complex shift towards gender-neutral fashion?

那么这到底是标新立异、全盘颠覆还是仅仅只是渐趋转向中性时装的个案？

Carlo Brandelli at Savile Row tailors Kilgour has been using bouclé —

英国萨维尔(Savile Row)裁缝行切尔高(Kilgour)创意总监卡洛.布兰德利(Carlo Brandelli)10多年来一直使用仿羔羊呢面料。

a wool as integral to the feminine lexicon of Chanel as its N°5 fragrance — for more than a decade.

就如同香奈儿(Chanel)不能少了5号香水，这种面料也是香奈儿女装的不二标配。

I use the same mill as Chanel and have no hesitation in using fabrics associated with womenswear, he says.

我与香奈儿的面料来自同一厂家，因此毫不犹豫地使用女装面料设计男装。

It was always very bizarre to me that fabric manufacturers set separate appointments for men’s and women’s textile collections.

他说，生产厂家把男装女装面料分得泾渭分明，但我觉得这很奇怪。

Then, when I started designing my own fabrics in 2004 it meant I could dictate the brief completely.

我2004年开始设计时装后，就开始完全自主地选择面料。

Brandelli’s tailoring is austere and masculine but its design is driven by texture.

布兰德利制作的男装庄重、男人味十足，但他的设计取决于面料质感。

Like the dazzling brocade bomber jackets at Dries Van Noten, or Alexander McQueen’s Victorian moth foil embroidery this season, it fits with a growing trend in menswear.

它与这个时装季的德赖斯.范诺顿(Dries Van Noten)织锦料亮丽短夹克（腰部和袖口带有松紧带）以及亚历山大.麦奎(Alexander McQueen)的维多利亚风格蛾箔刺绣图案男装一样，应和着当今男装的流行时尚。

If fashion is cyclical (and of course it is), this is one loop that’s taken longer than most to complete: we haven’t really seen it since the 18th century.

如果说时尚具有周期性（毫无疑问是如此），那么这一轮回比多数事物的周期都要长：自18世纪以来，我们还没有真正看到面料这一周期的终结。

Textiles only became ‘gendered’ in the 1790s, during and after the French Revolution,

面料直到18世纪90年代才有性别之分，那时是法国大革命之间与之后。

says fashion historian and author Judith Watt.

时尚历史学家及作家朱迪思.瓦特(Judith Watt)说。

After that date, decorative clothes for men — lace, velvet, woven fabrics like brocade, anything that was pretty — were verboten.

从那以后，装饰性面料（透孔织品、天鹅绒、织锦之类的编织类面料，一切漂亮的面料）就严禁用于制作男装。

The French adopted a masculinity defined by English sporting dress.

法国人沿用了英国运动装界定的男装风格。

But now it’s come full circle.

但如今这一时装运行周期行将结束。

It doesn’t really matter any more, does it?

现在女装面料运用于男装已无关紧要。

There’s no fence between masculine and feminine.

男女装之间已没有界限。

Textiles undeniably carry meaning.

面料毫无疑问承载着特定意义。

Consider the artist Joseph Beuys, whose use of grey felt was explained via an (apocryphal) story involving nomadic Tartars,

比方说德国艺术家约瑟夫.博伊斯(Joseph Beuys)，他爱用一个虚构的故事，故事称：灰色毛毡料源自游牧民族鞑靼人。

who he said had wrapped him in it after his plane crashed in the Crimea.

他说自己乘坐的飞机在克里米亚半岛(Crimea)失事后，正是当地鞑靼人用灰色毛毡把他裹护起来。

See also British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare — who is the subject of an exhibition at Stephen Friedman, London, until November 5 — who is celebrated for his colonial-era dresses, produced in the bright and graphic Dutch wax fabric so associated with African style.

再看英籍尼日利亚裔艺术家印卡.修尼巴尔(Yinka Shonibare)的例子：他以设计殖民时期的服装而著称于世，他在伦敦Stephen Friedman画廊举办了个展：他采用明显非洲风格、带有艳丽图案的荷兰蜡染面料设计时装。

These are textiles as pure statement.

这些都是体现纯主流时尚符号的面料。

In fashion, the meanings attributed to certain fabrics continue to change.

在时装界，特定面料的内涵不断在演变。

In the mid-1960s, Norman Mailer punched Warhol acolyte Mark Lancaster because Mailer took offence at his pink linen jacket.

上世纪60年代中叶，著名作家诺曼.梅勒(Norman Mailer)曾暴揍著名画家沃霍(Warhol)的助手马克.兰开斯特(Mark Lancaster)，原因是身穿粉色亚麻布夹克的梅勒感到遭受了对方侮辱。

Fifty years later, and Italian boutique Luisa Via Roma is currently selling a Saint Laurent hot pink mink coat for men (its price is just shy of ￡17,000).

时间仅过了50年，意大利奢饰品网站Luisa Via Roma如今却以近1.7万英镑的高价销售一款圣罗兰桃红色男式貂皮大衣。

Flamboyance for most of the 20th century was synonymous with homosexuality.

艳丽装在20世纪的多数时间里是同性恋的代名词。

But recent years have seen high fashion becoming more fluid in its approach.

但近年来，高端时装的跨界化趋向越发明显。

Gucci designer Alessandro Michele insists that his designs for men and women all start from the same source and uses the same pinky silks, vibrant prints and richly embellished materials across both his men’s and women’s labels.

古驰(Gucci)创意总监亚历山德罗.米歇尔(Alessandro Michele)坚称自己的男女装设计理念同宗同源，并在男装与女装中运用相同的淡红色真丝料、亮丽印花料以及带有华丽装饰图案的面料。

When Gaultier showed men in skirts in 1984 it was hugely controversial; now skirts are a staple at Dries Van Noten, Rick Owens and Yohji Yamamoto.

当高缇耶(Gautier)1984年推出男款短裙时，曾引发巨大争议；如今，短裙成了德赖斯.范诺顿、瑞克.欧文斯(Rick Owens)以及山本耀司(Yohji Yamamoto)等品牌的主打产品。

The actor Jaden Smith starred in a Louis Vuitton campaign this year wearing a skirt.

小明星杰登.史密斯(Jaden Smith)身穿短裙出演今年的路易威登(Louis Vuitton)广告大片。

And why not? It’s just a kilt with a twist.

有何不可呢？他穿的只是略微改动的苏格兰短褶裙。

This breaking down of gender boundaries has been most apparent in textiles, spurred on by young designers such as 2016 LVMH prize winner Grace Wales Bonner.

跨性现象在面料中最为明显，推波助澜者是包括2016年路威酩轩时装设计新人奖(LVMH prize)得主格蕾丝.威尔士.邦纳(Grace Wales Bonner)等设计新锐。

Her menswear has drawn equally on the dandy look of Quentin Crisp in the The Naked Civil Servant as it has the decorative ceremonial style of Haile Selassie.

如同她设计的男装借鉴了埃塞俄比亚皇帝海尔.塞拉西(Haile Selassie)的礼服装束一样，她也借鉴了英国电影《The Naked Civil Servant》中昆汀.克里斯普(Quentin Crisp)的时髦绅士装束。

I never thought when I started my career that I would be working with sequins, bouclé and Lurex,

自己刚入设计这一行时，从未想过有朝一日会用金属饰片、薄绸以和金属织物进行设计。

says Damien Paul, who is head of the menswear buy at Matchesfashion.com, but the modern man is embracing more feminine aspects of style.

Matchesfashion.com网店男装采购部主管达米安.保罗(Damien Paul)说，但是，当代男性越来越接受男装女性化。

I think men are open to experimentation as long as the fabrics are used on a traditionally masculine shape.

我认为只要这种（女性化）面料应用在传统版型的男装上，男士们还是愿意试一试的。

Gucci is one of the bestselling brands at Matches Fashion.

古驰是Matchesfashion.com网店上最为畅销的品牌，

Also popular is the young British designer Craig Green, whose autumn line is full of military green bouclé.

网店上同样大受粉丝追捧的还有英国设计新锐克雷格.格林(Craig Green)，他设计的秋季系列时装都采用了军绿色仿羔羊皮料。

Textile is always a main starting point for every collection, Green explains.

面料一直是任何时装的主要起点。

I was a textiles graduate at Central Saint Martins and I have always been obsessed with ideas of process and the properties of what a fabric can do or be.

格林解释道，我是中央圣马丁艺术学院(Central Saint Martins)面料专业的科班生，所以一直迷恋面料的加工流程、功能及其用途。