MEN'S fashion has come out of the closet. Unlike the Milan menswear collections, which proposed a swaggering machismo in terms of traditional linen suits and sportswear (and tanned torsos under those suits, and not a few Speedos) for next year, Paris closed the shows with a much softer take on Spring-Summer 2011.

Top labels have been tentatively exploring the androgynous look in terms of fluid shapes and ever frothier fabrics, for the past few years, but now, they have taken a bold plunge, and crossed the line to unabashedly feminine clothes, adapted for men. A few notable collections even presented dresses and skirts, and this was not done in an ironic manner: They were not jokes or gimmicks to garner publicity. The skirts and dresses, in all its guises, were seriously proposed as an alternative to the conventional suit as we know it.

And even where there were no actual skirts and dresses, many of these influential labels showed sheer fluttering fabric, meltingly soft shapes, and languid draping that borrowed heavily from women's couture material and technique. The message that echoed through the Paris shows was a determination to create a whole new menswear vocabulary, starting with a suit that had its stuffing knocked out, its rigid formality made easy, light and sensual.

Furthermore, rugged utility wear, such as khakis and overalls, shorts and parkas were reinvented as decorative, luxurious, refined and yes, unabashedly feminine.

Comme des Garçons

This collection will probably go down in fashion history as 'The Skulls and Skirts' collection. The reliably subversive designer Rei Kawakubo started off conventionally enough (conventional, that is, for Comme des Garcons) with shorts suits, slim shirts and soft, wide, drop-crotch pedal-pushers - entirely printed with graphic skulls. The morbid black and white prints, with gaping black holes for eyes and black gashes sneering, were systematically applied in myriad ways (on top of checks, printed over florals, on the tips of lace-ups as well as on ties; it also sometimes appeared as an amorphous blob with ghoulish eyes - on the back of models' heads), may well have been a homage to the late designer Alexander McQueen, who took the skull as his line's personal emblem.

And then the skirts came striding out. And the dresses. These are not apologetic kilts - already adopted by designer Marc Jacobs as a uniform - or even elongated Indian tunics, but full blown, pleated affairs. Drop-waisted and fluttering, and worn with demure white shirts or under short jackets, they had the look of a 1950s tea dress. The skull print rescued them from looking twee.

Rick Owens

Although Rick Owens designs with a savage aesthetic that is a far cry from Kawakubo, this collection nonetheless featured numerous skirts and long shifts, worn over high-heeled boots. Although austere and undecorated, the silhouette is languidly elongated, if not actually dainty. Arms were bared in sleeveless coats and jackets, and memorably, a group of sheer white toga tops was accessorised with chunky cuffs - the sort of stuff often seen in women's collections. There were also nuns' wimples and slim, feminine proportions mixing long coats worn over shorts. Of course none of these outfits need to be worn as a total look.

Owens's signature savage elegance, which has been refined season after season, can be consumed piece by piece: the cult boots which sprout flaps and straps, the low-crotched knee pants, the swooping coats are familiar Rick Owens standbys, and masculine enough, if for a young, edgy clubber. Just don't wear those heavy bracelet cuffs!

Dior Homme

A bit more mainstream and soothing to the eye was Kris Van Assche's beautiful and subtle show. Similarly monochromatic and austere as Rick Owens's collection, the Dior Homme collection was a lot more elegant in mood and tone and trailing fabric. In this collection, Van Assche breaks away from the rigid and remorselessly fitted silhouette that had come to define Dior Homme courtesy of Hedi Slimane.

Instead, Van Assche has taken the Zen way (he has been treading this path for the past two seasons and this collection seems to be a maturation of this particular style). There was a heavy touch of the East in the wrapped, collarless tops, the gently wafting layers, the kungfu pants and sandals.

The finale featured a bevy of the slightest Asian boys, perhaps a reflection of Dior Homme's huge following in Asia. It looked like a tasteful, high fashion version of a Jedi knight's uniform. The feminine touch was also very much in evidence, if not in the form of actual skirts. Slim black suits and jackets had gently flapping panels, loose tops swayed and swirled because they were cut on the bias, and asymmetrical toga details adorned sleeveless arms. The plunging V-necks, alas, only revealed flat boyish chests.

Yves Saint Laurent

Designer Stefano Pilati once again took the YSL woman's heritage and used its elements to create a men's collection that was an uncompromisingly dry intellectual exercise. With many in the industry caving in to commercial designs and presenting formulaic cheap and cheerful looks, Pilati sent out something quite contrary.

Nothing in the collection was calculated to please. The proportions, borrowed from the women's collection were awkward, if thought-provoking. The A-line shorts that bloomed away from the legs looked like mini skirts - and they were unnaturally high-waisted at that. Jackets were cinched with belts worn outside, and of course, the famous YSL fezzes. A reference to Yves Saint Laurent's Algerian roots, it also recalled how the late Saint Laurent used to send those out, perched perkily on the crowns of his favourite supermodels of the 1970s and 1980s.

Of course, on these men, the fezzes had an ironic touch. They looked quietly mad, of course, since it requires bold red lips and clanging chunky gold earrings to make the fezzes look remotely possible. That, or a souk.

Jean Paul Gaultier

Yves Saint Laurent and his legacy was also a big influence at Jean Paul Gaultier. It was one of Gaultier's most cohesive and engaging menswear presentations in recent years, and showed the couturier was still in step with current fashion. He can sometimes seem anachronistic. The YSL references of laced safari tops, North African tunics, square spectacles, black leather, wafting djellaba tunic, and not least, the gender bending ideas. Saint Laurent was iconic for taking from the gent's wardrobe to dress his females (for instance he made the tux a YSL woman's staple); here, Gaultier subverts this further by taking the YSL woman's codes and presenting it on men. Long, sheer dresses allowed a peek at the sinuous male torso clad in a sliver of a swimsuit, a vest was re-invented as a halter top, sharply tailored dinner jackets were worn with the briefest of hot pants.

Yohji Yamamoto

While the Yohji Yamamoto show was not overtly feminine, there were those Dresden china colours, delicate embroidery and any number of tunic dresses, worn under jackets at the final section of his presentation. But one could argue that all costume play is un-masculine. And this collection, although light and playful, was definitely costume play: A veritable history of men's fashion was on parade, including Renaissance breeches, powdered wigs, Victorian military coats and Georgian tails. The unpedantic collage effect, and the loose fit, updated these looks and made them contemporary. But it was a romantic vision nonetheless, full of nostalgia for gentler times long past, and very much part of Yamamoto's aesthetic.

John Galliano

John Galliano is yet another nostalgic romantic. He often references history in his collections and in this one, he looks at 1930s Hollywood. He opened his show with a Charlie Chaplin figure - the little tramp caught in the time warp of gigantic clockwork - and then segues into imagery from the cult movie Death In Venice. What it translated into was the on-trend silhouette of a figure-hugging, high-waisted, elongated top paired with pooling voluminous trousers. As far as fashion goes, this not overly feminine - but for the reference to the film, which is about a man's obsession with a coldly beautiful blonde youth.

Lanvin

One of the leading proponents of modern menswear with all the sleek refinement of women's wear, Lanvin's Lucas Ossendrijver and the house's design director Alber Elbaz, presented a collection that was sophisticated and elegant without resorting to costumes or cliched theatrics. Using contemporary utility gear as a starting point, ordinary items like parkas, jogging pants, overalls, biker shorts, jerseys, trekking sandals and messenger bags were given the full couture treatment of lush fabric, innovative darts and seams, decorative unfinished edges and chunky chokers. The inventive cut and elongated fit gave the 'rugged' clothes a deep elegance and lyricism. The organic look of the rumpled fabrics, with stray threads flying, wrinkles and pleats, was at the same time intensely luxurious because the techno fabrics had an old world sheen, and details, like the cloud-patterned checked jacquard gave a rich texture to the suits. The clothes were womanly, without being drag.

Hermes

In the same softer mode, Hermes designer Veronique Nichanian, who has made this label's menswear justly celebrated with her understated approach to luxury, once again sent out a brilliant collection. These were classics remade with lightness, ease and softness in mind. It's not a high concept-collection, and the shapes, while given weightlessness, were unchallenging classic menswear staples. The hallmark high quality of this luxury house can elevate even the dullest designs, and the immaculate craftsmanship lent the sporty, flirty separates, summery white suits, silk shirts, leather jackets, espadrille sandals a glossy, sexy excitement.

Of course it remains to be seen if men outside the rarefied world of fashion will jump into skirts and dresses anytime soon. But bear in mind the trickle down effect of the powerful machinery of fashion and its seductive marketing. Just three decades ago, hair colour, earrings and designer bags were but the figment of some designer's dreams. Now men of every stripe have adopted them.