FASHION VS. GENDER Love it or hate it, fashion is here to stay. The immense impact that fashion has on today's culture and daily life is evident everywhere you turn.
There isn’t a clear divide between male and female fashion. During the past five years, designers have created slim-fitted outfits for both men and women, while designing lines of clothes known as “boyfriend-fit.” It’s supposed to Today, the line between male and female fashion simulate borrowing clothing from a male friend, yet it’s designed specifically for women. is constantly blurred. Pieces traditionally worn by men have expanded According to “The Independent,” In 1966 Yves into women’s fashion, and similarly women’s Saint Laurent introduced “Le Smoking Tuxedo fashion has permeated the male fashion industry. Suit” for women. The tux featured a blazer, wide The shift to designers creating clothing for consumers set the stage for contemporary gender constructs because rather than people creating their own clothing, designers began to tell each gender what they should be wearing. In short, designers created an “us vs. them” mentality in apparel because they marketed certain pieces to each respective gender.
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cut high-waisted pants and a button down blouse. It was advertised with an androgynous model smoking a cigarette. Women flocked to the tux because it allowed them to wear comfortable, practical and powerful clothing, while embracing their femininity. As women began to embrace clothing traditionally associated with men, glam metal bands rocked out in the mid-1970s, further distorting once again the line between men’s and women’s style.
Kiss performed shows dressed in leather, with choice and personal style, that we can faces full of makeup and blown out hair. Given manipulate the gender binary and carve out our their popularity, no one thought anything of their own personal stylized gender identity. austere form of expression. While most of us may think that we are individuals and we choose I’m not advocating for people to disregard what to wear without outside influence, chances gender as a whole, but we should feel are someone else has already worn the look you comfortable to wear whatever we want out of have created. Their androgyny was mirrored by admiration of a piece’s beauty. If a pair of Jimmy mainstream fashion in the 1970s. Men and Choo’s call your name, no one has the women both wore bellbottoms and right to stop you from buying it, grew long hair. It seems that this was one of the first times men regardless of which side of and women felt free to Nordstrom you belong on. express themselves regardless of societal Mark Twain once said, expectations based on “Clothes make the man, “Clothes make the man, gender. naked people have little or naked people have little or
no influence If we can start to understand fashion as a means to influence our own gender understanding and step outside the binary implications of gender, we can better recognize the importance of the power that fashion has on societal gender views, and its control over not only individuality, but culture as well. It is through fashion, clothing
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on society.”
no influence on society.” If this is true, and clothes really do make the man, then what happens when clothes make the man a woman, or vice versa?
The clothes we wear let the outside world know who we are, and there is a lot of room to play. Men can become queens, women can be kings, and with androgyny, it can all be
left a mystery. The way we dress gives an immediate impression of who we are to the world. From the Hippies of the past to the Hipsters of today, our culture is built on individuals using fashion as a means to explain and exhibit personal beliefs to society.
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Fashion and clothing are an essential part of the gender transformation movement. In examining the field of gender expression through fashion, I recognize that, categorically, there are many different ways of expressing queer identity, and in no way do I wish to separate or marginalize any of these. It is also important to note that