By: Victoria Burch, Ava Herin, and Caroline Muffie
Historically, the mainstream fashion industry has been extremely segregated in terms of gender, creating and selling basically two categories of clothing: masculine and feminine. However, in recent years, as substantial cultural and societal changes with regard to gender have occurred, the fashion industry has adapted. Given the dramatic shifts taking place, one cannot help but consider Irish poet Oscar Wilde’s statement that “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” Are the changes afoot in our society causing the shift in fashion, or has fashion advanced the changes in our culture?
Gender inclusive, or gender neutral fashion, refers to clothes, accessories, or a style of clothing that is not associated with any gender.
Another way that this is often described as is “androgynous,” meaning that fashion mixes characteristics of stereotypically feminine clothing with characteristics of stereotypically masculine clothing. This idea of androgyny was born of necessity, as women started to find traditionally feminine clothes inconvenient for daily life, and turned to the more practical clothes traditionally made for men.
Dressing androgynously gained popularity for fashion rather than practicality purposes around the 1970s. Runway looks began to use this combination of traditionally masculine and feminine styles, and in the 80s working women popularized a female version of the traditionally male power suit, albeit with a skirt instead of pants and a scarf instead of a tie.
Even though backlash against androgynous dressing was initially common, many brands and celebrities began breaking the norms of gendered fashion, pushing the idea that clothes could be chosen for their style or color, rather than their gender. Stars like Prince and Elton John popularized many of these ideas and wore traditionally more feminine clothing and accessories when they performed; Prince wore heels and makeup, and Elton John wore sequin- and sparkle-studded jumpsuits. Even grunge stars, such as Kurt Cobain and Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, performed in dresses, even if just for comfort rather than speaking on gender norms. Seeing celebrities normalize this approach to fashion made it more acceptable and accessible for others who wanted to join in. As years have passed and trends have come and gone, ideas about gender neutrality in fashion have only grown as people come to accept the fluidity of gender along with the fluidity of clothing and individual style. Today it is much more common to see men wearing skirts or women in traditionally male suits.
Androgynous fashion has been growing in popularity, and in the present day, many teenagers are experimenting with clothing that defies gender norms. To dive deeper into the topic of androgyny in the teen fashion world, we interviewed Sage Hill students and asked them to share the reasoning behind their androgynous clothing choices. We found that many people feel that androgyny provides them with a creative outlet and form of self-expression.
Junior Olivia Sheng shares this sentiment and believes that others should “dress in what makes you feel confident; your body is your avatar-do whatever you want with it.” Another junior, Logan Pardo, who enjoys “a feminine and cute style,” shared with us that his fashion sense revolves around “fun, expression, and what makes me feel comfortable.”
Being gender neutral in the fashion world means using clothes as a way to express oneself without restricting oneself to gender norms. An example of this is this year’s Playtime issue in Vogue Magazine with Harry Styles. In this shoot, Styles wore a dress and skirt, simply stating that “clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with.” Although there was much criticism about this, it ultimately addressed the idea that clothes are a part of how we create our own identity and therefore should not be expectations based on gender. Though there are still challenges with full acceptance of gender neutrality in fashion, we have come a long way. Today, people are becoming more comfortable wearing styles that they enjoy, no matter the typical body or gender they were created for.
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