There is a current trend in the fashion world that I, being a woman myself, almost hate to admit. It seems that female designers today are starting to lose their touch, while male designers are producing fabulous, classy, and modern fashions to make up for it.

I am obviously not making this observation to serve a sexist purpose. I feel bad that I must go against my home girls like Diane von Furstenberg and Celine. However, if they continue to create gaudy, ill-fitting garments then someone has to tell them to step up their game against the boys.

Take the Barbara Tfank gown on the right as opposed to the Brian Reyes dress on the left, both from the designer's fall 2008 ready-to-wear collections
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Both dresses are made of a similar fabric and carry the same belted silhouette that has become very popular for cocktail dresses in recent years. However, where Reyes' piece is modern, edgy, and flattering, Tfank has created a shapless gown that no young person would be caught dead in. The dress looks so boxy on this model, and would on anyone with a decent figure.

Reyes has scored a bull's eye with his gorgeous, sexy cocktail dress, and Tfank seems to have completely missed the mark with her piece.

Another trend observed in the difference between male and female designers is displayed by comparing the Celine dress on the left to the Calvin Klein piece on the right.

Both designers have created dresses with volume. However, Klein's gown adds the volume where it still remains flattering to the model's body. The dress made by Celine has extra fabric in all of the wrong places, hiding the model's figure and creating an undesired silhouette.

I am not saying that all designing from the female spectrum has gone to shit. Some big name business women, such as Donna Karen and Erin Fetherston, are upholding our reputation with sleek new looks and trends that will carry through the decades. On the other hand, there are other female designers who should consider going back to the basics.

Creating fashion is not all about who is wearing the most eye-catching pieces that will get you noticed, it is about dressing o flatter your body and make you feel relaxed and still sexy. This is why I think male designers are stepping up to the plate and creating these great looks. They are dressing their models in the clothes that they love to see women in, which ironically usually end up being the most comfortable and becoming.

If all women, not just fashion designers, could digress from this need to be the most trendy and flashy, the world would be a much more simple place with a lot less ruffles.

-- Beth Ann Downey