As businesses everywhere scramble for innovative ways to energise their sales, fashion designers, too, are rising up against fashion diktats and wardrobe conformism.

Suit and tie sales have suffered the most in menswear, sector players say, and these are being cast off in favour of classy comfort based on mixing, matching and layering.

"The suit is no longer an outfit," says the head of the powerful Couture Federation Didier Grumbach in Paris. "Men's clothes now are as inventive as those for women. More and more men are ready to take risks, there are plenty of things available other than the suit."

So at the men's fashion weeks in Milan and Paris in the last fortnight, the conventional two-piece business suit was nowhere to be seen. Its emblematic accessory, the tie, also slipped off stage, popping up expectedly at long-time luxury tie-makers Hermes and Lanvin, but little shown elsewhere as designers instead chose scarves, hats or glasses to liven up collections.

With the luxury industry worried over the economic crisis, top designers matched jackets and pants with waistcoats and even T-shirts, putting the accent on wearability and durability.

"We took our inspiration from the street, seeing what men want to wear," say Lanvin's highly-rated designer team, Dutchman Lucas Ossendrijver and Israeli Alber Elbaz. "This collection is anti-uniform," says Elbaz. Elaborates Ossendrijver, "One day you wear something classical, the next day a T-shirt, there is no uniform."

And there's hope ahead. Experts say the sector has not been as badly hit as women's wear, that Bernanke's famous green shoots have begun to impact the business.

"Things are beginning to stop getting worse and there is the hope that, come the [autumn], they will appear at least to improve if only because we will be comparing ourselves with the drops in the last quarter of 2008," says John Hooks, deputy managing director at Giorgio Armani. "The effects of this downturn will be felt for several seasons to come."

Salvatore Ferragamo CEO Michele Norsa says menswear had an advantage in that it could adapt more quickly to the changing consumer mood. "Men's fashion quickly gave up excess, the more formal style," he says, adding that menswear is reacting better than womenswear because it "is stronger in emerging markets and men are not as aggressive consumers as women. They continue to buy at a reasonable pace, valuing more classic brands".

With demand holding in emerging markets, many brands are now looking eastwards. "Men's business is usually the first to be hurt by a downturn and this is the case, particularly in the US," Hooks says. "But we do have many markets where menswear is traditionally dominant such as China and the Middle East and it's holding up well there."

Designers say men are looking for consistency in their wardrobes – and sent out international, multiracial looks that could appeal to emerging markets struggling to marry eastern tradition with western structures. "Men [want] something that has some stability, some heritage. I think people are looking for something unique," says Burberry's Christopher Bailey.

Executives say it is hard to make forecasts and no-one expects business to return to the pre-recession levels soon. Consulting firm Bain Co expects luxury goods sales to fall 10 per cent this year. (With input by Keith J?Fernandez)


Black is back

From?John Galliano to Nina Ricci, Alberta Feretti and Caroline Herrera, a slew of designers tried to glam up the abaya in Paris last week, right after French President Nicolas Sarkozy criticised the head-to-toe burqa. The show, organised by retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, comes at a time when fashion houses are keen to tap newer markets as sales decline in the West.

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