The year 2005 is a year of changing of demographics, when the youngest baby boomers have definitely reached middle age, and their children are now the emerging economic force.

With very disparate needs that are most probably on the extreme ends of the spectrum fashion responded with very diverse collections, then found itself a middle ground wherein the generation gap was beautifully bridged.

Leading the pack is Jean Paul Gaultier who revisited the elegance of the 1940s mixing classic lines with the contemporary. Wide lapels on jackets, wide legged-pants inspired by the sailor cracker jacks, and of course striped knit shirts reminiscent of the French naval uniform.

"Hedi Slimane of Dior Homme went to the other end of the spectrum, going for heavy metal band look – pencil thin pants, l ong neckties and shawls and snug fitting jackets.

It’s the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, the bands that the baby boomers worshipped during their heydays. And now, it’s their children who are going to wear these looks. With Dior Homme, fashion has come full circle, a bridge to two generations.

But it was Ozwald Boateng at Givenchy Homme who completed the process that Jean Paul Gaultier and Hedi Slimane started.

The well-dressed gentleman whose age can range from 20 to 60. Ozwald Boateng’s tailoring skills made it possible, the suaveness of Sean Connery’s James Bond, another baby boomer icon translated into today’s terms so that echo boomers can wear them.

Naoki Takizawa for Issey Miyake broke new grounds in fashion. With a poetic, artistic and romantic collection he shattered the barrier between metrosexuals and the “regular Joe.”

Lumberjacks from the Pacific Northwest can wear his multi-pocketed winter jackets and feel comfortable and not think that he has become citified at all! And the metrosexuals can eat their hearts out!

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Dior Homme by Hedi Slimane

Givenchy Homme by Ozwald Boateng

Issey Miyake by Naoki Takizawa

Louis Vuitton