Gender-bending is now part of menswear. Paris runways show how mainstream it has become

This was men’s fashion season. The women were everywhere.

They walked the coed Paris runways at Amiri and Ami. At Vetements, women modeled many of the “menswear” looks, and Sharon Stone closed the show in thigh-high boots.

Inside fashion, none of this was eyebrow-raising.

The gender blur was not happening on the margins. It was built into Paris Men’s Fashion Week, which ended Sunday, where a multibillion-dollar luxury industry shows what it thinks men will want next.

It has reached menswear advertising, too.

A pregnant Rihanna became the face of Pharrell Williams’ first Louis Vuitton men’s campaign in 2023, appearing on a giant Paris billboard with her baby bump exposed and arms full of Vuitton bags.

“It’s not something completely new,” said Joseph McBrinn, art historian at Ulster University.

Women have paraded through menswear collections for so many seasons that it barely registers with fashion insiders anymore — even as