Let Clothes Fly
Clothes are one way of expressing ourselves. It grants us liberty to express our identities creatively in the form of fabrics.
However, this creativity has been suppressed in recent years. We’ve all been led to believe that girls belong in skirts and dresses, while men get to wear shorts and suits. This narrative cements the idea of dainty women and reliable men.
But that isn’t always the case, not when the world isn’t as two-toned they make it to be.
Not all of us fit the cookie-cutter definition of femininity and masculinity. Behind the white and black narrative that we’ve been led to believe is a rainbow of identities that have been suppressed for so long.
In fact, the concept of gender-coded clothes only began in the late 1940s when clothing manufacturers began to associate certain colors to strictly femininity or masculinity. Boys would always be dressed in cooler colors whereas girls would dress in brighter and prettier colors. Catalogs of books that dictated what color of clothes were acceptable would be sold worldwide, starting an era where gender would be perceived as a binary. The spectrum of genders would be lost during this time, and those that didn’t fit the narrative would be forced to choose a side they didn’t fit in.
A lot of people hid in their closets, afraid to be labelled as wrong and weird.
But the people fought. In the 1960s, feminists fought to bring back unisex clothing. They stood their ground. They were able to reclaim the use of unisex clothing but this era would also not last long. Companies began to create more specific and individualized binaries regarding people’s genders and it would soon stay that way for mainstream clothing companies for the years to come.
We can see this when baby girls are dressed in princess-themed diapers and boys would wear car-themed diapers. We see this when children begin to associate certain people to be for the boys or for the girls.
But in today’s society where the picture of a binary gender is fading and embraces the journey of self-discovery and acceptance, this type of clothing stagnates this progress. The era of girls in culottes and men in suits is coming to a close, and we should embrace this fact.
It makes sense for us to make clothes that can be used for everyone, regardless of their gender and identities. Clothes should be made for everyone to use, like the paint of an artist. We should all get the right to express ourselves in the clothes we feel comfortable in.
In today’s society burgeoning acceptance of self-exploration and discovery, one of the main tools that we’ll be using to express ourselves are our clothes. We use them to subtly tell the world of our preferences, our style and our identities. By making clothes unisex, we eliminate the boundaries that limit ourselves from expressing who we are. The concepts of femininity and masculinity would no longer be restricted to just men and women; it would free us from the notion that girls only wore dresses and skirts when boys can. It would make those who don’t feel like they fit the gender molds of society feel more accepted and seen.
Being seen and accepted may seem like such a small concept to society as a whole, but to those hiding inside their closets, it means the world to them. It means everything to little boys and girls who don’t feel like they fit in the clothes that they are wearing. It means the world to the people who’ve never been accepted all their lives because they ‘didn’t dress right’.
It may not mean a lot to you, but it means a lot to someone else, and that’s what matters.
Clothes are a tool of expression; they are merely pieces of clothing strung together. But when you place it in the right hands, they become masterpieces; they show the world someone’s identity that they are proud of. We’ve restricted clothes for far too long, making it fit into two rigid clothes when it flows and morphs in the hands of its creators.
Let your clothes flow free and color the world with your own identity.
Make the world your fashion show.
