Girls Wear Pink, Boys Wear Blue
The inspired clothing trend and how it’s challenging societal norms of masculinity and feminity
One of the hottest emerging trends hitting the world stage is not the works of a specific brand, a type of garment, or sneaker style — it’s androgynous fashion!
Some may assume that androgynous fashion is strictly boys wearing skirts or women dressing in trousers and dress shirts. While this is partially true, it is important to define androgynous fashion as a movement that focuses not only on provoking gender stereotypes but aims to not being constrained by gender at all.
We’re all familiar with classic gender stereotypes, “girls wear pink” “boys wear blue” attitude where women are expected to wear clothing representative of femininity. Dresses, skirts, delicate blouses perhaps with a floral print added (you get the idea). Whereas traditionally menswear is often confined to muted and or masculine color palettes with a tailored and/or structured look.
Androgynous fashion is dedicated to representing one’s gender identity, which is the internal perception of one’s gender and how they label themselves regardless of sex assigned at birth. The representation of this can be known as gender expression, which can be seen through the combination of clothes, demeanor, grooming and social behavior.
Genderqueer is a gender identity label often used by people who do not identify with the binary of man/woman and is used as an umbrella term for numerous non-binary identities. Transgender is a description for an individual that has transitioned (or in transition) from living as one gender to another. This term is assigned to anyone who’s biological sex and gender identity do not correspond expectedly.
This past spring, fashion house, Maison Margiela released their Spring 2019 Menswear Collection in hopes to contribute a statement on their opinion of the new age of gender expression.
“[I]t’s going to define a new sensuality, a new sexuality”
Featured in the collection was a series of subdued tailoring mixed with corsets, glossy second-skin vinyl, and pussy-bow blouses. John Galliano, director of Maison Margiela incorporated the avant-garde bondage theme by wrapping torsos in layers of sheer tulle and cinching waists with the corsets. “[I]t’s going to define a new sensuality, a new sexuality”.
The collection illustrates the effort to redefine masculinity through Galliano’s combined techniques of tailoring and added decadence of traditionally feminine embellishments, similar to the designs often found in haute couture runways.
This avant-garde collection demonstrated that fashion does not correlate with masculine or feminine attributes characteristic of any gender. Maison Margiela’s collection is critical to the broadening of fashion unrestricted by gender. Galliano’s aim to bring forth a beautiful inherently genderless collection reflected my view is that androgynous fashion embraces open-mindedness that should encourage anyone to pursue masculinity or femininity.
Androgynous fashion also assigns itself to those with gender identities often ostracized by conventional retail garment designs. Reviewing fashion historically, clothing has not been created for a spectrum of genders.
Although the past few years have seen a leap in consciousness for the many issues that face the transgender community, one of which mainly goes undetected, the act of getting dressed.
The 2016 HBO documentary Suited directed by Jason Benjamin featured several genderqueer individuals in their journey of procuring a custom suit at Bindle & Keep suiting company. They are operated in Brooklyn by Rae Tutera and Daniel Friedman aiming to provide the experience of custom tailoring a suit for individuals a part of the gender non-conforming and transgender community. Suited features numerous stories, one being of a transgender man, Derek Matteson, that inquired online for a tailored suit for his nearing wedding.
Derek’s storyline centered around his search for a suit that would provide a structured masculine figure. The documentary demonstrated the apprehension that genderqueer and/or transgender individuals experience shopping for clothing made by an industry that has yet to acknowledge them.
Suited made me think about the profound aspects of androgynous fashion not being “genderless”, but an attitude geared to challenge the arbitrariness of gender norms. It sheds light on the close relationship between the experience of gender and how that translates to various needs for different fashions to accommodate.
Both the Maison Margiela collection and Suited documentary exhibit the diverse meanings that androgynous fashion holds. Sometimes it isn’t about having all clothes be genderless, but more about providing specific feminine and masculine clothing in a variety of sizes for any gender. Or perhaps it’s about not identifying with any masculine or feminine characteristics. In this way, androgynous fashion grants autonomy back to the individual over their self-expression free of any gender expectations.
