OUT OF THE CLOSET
“People often write fashion off as frivolous, but by inducing gender- nonconformity in the dream-life we offer to consumers, we show our power as a progressive force.”
Gender blurring in fashion is nothing new of course. From Marlene Deitrich donning a man’s tailcoat in the 1930s film Morroco to the more Givenchy skirt wearing Kanye West, expressing ones gender ambiguously through clothes has become prevalent in the fashion world.
Transgender model and activist Hari Nef in a recent interview however, is more cynical, stating that “she does not think fashion is a fertile ground for a discussion of gender.” Nef claims that rather than disrupting gender norms, images and genres in fashion that are supposedly “subversive” to gender actually just reinforce the binary.
You can see her point. Let’s look at YSL’s LE SMOKING for example. This women’s tux, which was essentially a reinterpretation of black tie menswear, was a controversial statement on femininity and masculinity — it marked a sexuality that did not rely “ruffles or exposed skin, but instead smouldered beneath the sharp contours of a perfectly cut jacket and trouser.”
While garments like this did play a significant role in changing perceptions around the ways in which men and women should dress, when taken out of their background and history and proclaimed as subversive today, they become weak. Nef sums the issue up well: “If a woman is sourcing power from a signifier of stereotypical masculinity, then how sustainable is that?” “If a woman is putting on a suit and taking it off, is that really subversion of gender binaries or is just a reinforcement of that binary as we know it?”
I disagree with Nef in some respects, and agree in others. Disagree because we cannot ignore that fact that fashion clearly has potential to offer people ways to explore gender in ways that they may have not thought possible. At its core, fashion is about identity; clothes are used to to reconcile tensions between our inner and social selves. It has such a compelling influence over the way we feel and think about our bodies.
In fashion, individuals are able to escape gender by playing with the rules that have created it. Clothing allows people to encounter and play with new aesthetics and new propositions for being a person that isn’t usually offered in day to day life. Different kinds of beauty are offered in fashion … Not just mainstream femininity and masculinity.
Through clothes, men can access their femininity and women their masculinity. The result of these gender crossings is that the distinction between man and woman is disappearing. At least aesthetically. But that qualification is important, and the reason I also agree with Nef to some extent. Fashion allows us to challenge gender norms aesthetically. Outside of aesthetics in fashion, there is a long way to go: “Fashion is having a moment with trans aesthetics, not trans issues.”
Fashion, unfortunately, has a sinful history of drawing inspiration from other cultures aesthetic, without giving due consideration and attention towards the history and issues within the culture itself. A recent example being Valentino’s spring show this year which was apparently “African-inspired”; it featured fewer than 10 black models.
Fashion has embraced androgyny and gender bending styles. Selfridges’ unisex Agender department is good example. This issue though is that “unisex” is not subversive. Unisex, by definition is “designed to be suitable for both sex, a style in which me and women look and dress in a similar way.” Unisex by definition then, still works within the gender binary. Notably, the models used in these campaigns are often male and female presenting, not gender non-conforming.
It is one thing to embrace the visual styles, but another to embrace the lived lives. A few years ago, trans model Andreja Pejic was told by a casting agent prior to her transition not to go through with it. The reason she was told? In fashion, “It’s better to be androgynous than a tranny.” (Thankfully, she ignored this advice and her career has flourished post-transition.) Fashion needs more trans and gender non-conforming models. And even then, we must go further. Most trans people are a world away from the glitzy existence of top model. An increase of trans people in roles at the forefront of fashion generally must happen; make-up artists, casting agents, photographers are still badly under-represented.
Fashion has the power to demystify and raise awareness around trans issues. But clothing alone in fashion, although significant for self-expression of identity, will not subvert gender norms. Fashions challenge to the gender binary should not just be an aesthetic-borrowing trend. To be clear, fashion borrowing trans aesthetic is a good thing; it enables people to see and carry out ways of being they did not think possible. But it is more about considering the people in the clothes and what they’re doing to challenge the gender binary, as opposed to relying on the clothing itself to disrupt the gender binary. Instead of associating gender binary disruptions with the garments themselves we need to look more at the person or the identity behind them.
[AMY RODGERS]