Fusion of Genders: X vs Y
In recent seasons, we have started to see the emerging
appearance of the sharp masculine shapes of the male silhouette and the slipping
withdrawal of the female day dresses. In your own experiences as a fashion bystander
have you seen women taking the ‘gender-bending’ plunge more than we have seen
in the 21st century? More and more women such as Visual Merchandiser
Elpida Magkoura are ditching the
feminine guise and peaking through the wardrobes of their male friends/partners
and choosing their inventive style of jacket, trouser or suit, “I personally as
well as other girlfriends of mine have several men’s items in our wardrobe, as
well as for ever been borrowing our partner’s clothes”. Designers have noticed
the modern take of the androgyny trend that entails a rule-break between the
male and female outlines, across the streets of the biggest fashion capitals
and have bombarded us with the latest creative invention to continue the
melding of men and women styles.
Masculine couture has graced our viewing sources of the
latest fashion arsenals since the trend originated from the 1950’s, traditional
values of the working class male returned in business suits and ties,
articulating the amount of power men had in the employment sector. The
masculinity returned in the 1980’s with a new modernism, the trouser became
straighter and colours more submissive, embodying the 1950’s relics of the male
and female gender roles in society but with a more powerful alternative.
Androgyny has continued to be the prominent look in today’s market; garments
that were once designed for a gender specific are now combined to define both masculinity
and femininity. 2010 foresaw the future of the ‘gender-bend’ when Bottega Veneta’s A/W 2010-11 collection
presented mannish blazers and suits in black leathers with sharp shoulders, combining
this with feminine chiffon fabric and bursts of bright pink and red, whilst
creating discord with free flowing silk dresses that vision hints of leather. Paris
Fashion Week 2013 likewise reinstated this invigorating vogue, Stella McCartney’s A/W 2013-14
collection saw the use of her superior fashion logic to create the latest twist
on ‘gender-bending’. The classic pin-strip outline was the prominent attribute for
the audience to feast their fashion-hungry eyes upon. Oversized jackets with
prodigious lapels, easy-moving jumpsuits and voluminous dresses screamed a new
invention of masculine-feminine assortments. Today’s fashion creators have
re-emerge androgyny as a key style within the industry, pioneering fashions of
the mini skirt, power suits and colour blocking patterns have been renovated to
represent the current political state of society, with women becoming more
acknowledged in the business environment, these 21st century designs
are an exciting approach to define their new powerful status.
The idea that clothing is an important characteristic in
pinpointing somebody’s chosen identity, puts into perspective how the assortment
of male and female styles is changing the way we see the future of gender,
fashion and identities. There appears to be a sight emerging of an egalitarian
society within fashion, Diana Crane, author of ‘Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender and Identity in Clothing’,
voices her opinion that clothes are made to define an individual’s gender as a
means of outlining their social position and status, “fashion is available to
people at all social levels, both for creating styles that express their
identities and for adopting styles created by clothing firms”. Fashion has
shown a different kind of ‘gender-bending’ through its first compelling
exposition of transgender model, Andrej
Pejic. The Bosnia-Herzegovina model has been the face of fashion androgyny
since his fame engaged with the industry in 2010. Andrej has since modelled for
Jean-Paul Gaultier in his men’s S/S
2011 catwalk show and campaign, Marc
Jacobs fashion campaign in the same season, as well as being the face
across front covers of many fashion magazines, including Style:men and Romeu magazine
to name but a few. Another representation of an androgynous model in fashion is
Casey Legler; the woman who works as
a male model was founded for her distinctive looks to be the face of the All Saints S/S 2013 campaign, arraying
both women’s and men’s garments. In a recent video interview with Daily Beast, Casey spoke of how she has
always felt more comfortable in a men’s shirt as opposed to wearing a women’s shirt
and it’s a matter of personal choice to wear what wardrobe she wishes. This
comes from her opinion of there being a limit to which men or women can
identify themselves particularly in clothing, how there are specific garments
that a man and woman should wear.
Today, most of the high street stores appear to provide a lot
more clothing options for women. From girly day dresses to boyish logo t-shirts,
flowing skirts and masculine structured jackets and trousers, women can explore
a more exciting variety in their wardrobe now. With this in mind, more men are resulting
to wear elaborate prints and mirroring the fashionable woman; Kayne West
notably wore a printed shirt from Celine’s
Spring 2011 collection and women wearing the masculine suit; Kate Moss for Mango A/W 2012 is a prime example, there
appears to be a role reversal in society and a blurring of gender boundaries,
are men wanting to look more feminine in today’s society, or are they
suggesting they would like to have the same opportunity women have today
wearing men’s clothing? We know that fashion likes to surprise us with the
latest extreme must-haves of the season, but in was no doubt the most prodigious
display of 2011, Lady Gaga appeared at the years Video Music Awards dressed as
her idol, Jo Calderone. Sporting a casual jacket and white t-shirt, with slick
backed John Travolta style hair, she gave a new lease of life to androgyny and
what it means in fashion. Speaking for MTV Gaga stated, “I
hope people take the fearlessness away [and] the creative notion that we
constantly push boundaries, that we're not followers”. There appears to
be differing levels of androgyny in today’s society, with men seemingly wanting
to look as fashionable as their female counterparts by wearing clothing that
represents femininity. If people continue to push the gender boundaries in
fashion, what will men and women look like in the future?
Fashion designers appear to be taking more risks in their
collections, leading to a suggestion of new social status within fashion, Yves Saint Laurent’s Unisex collection,
inspired by his men’s Spring 2009 collection shaped a unique gender-bending
innuendo. It seems to be ever more acceptable for individuals to choose
garments from the opposite sex, the androgynous trend appears to revive, with
its enduring popularity season after season. The launch in the 1950’s has come
across as the beginning of its popularity, every decade since saw a
contemporary reaffirmation of ‘gender-bending’. The 60’s portrayed a subtle
hint of androgyny with a cropped haired, boyish look of ‘Twiggy’, on-going to the
explosion in the 80’s with punk-inspired Vivienne Westwood fashion and the 90’s
grunge look, finally with the appearance of the skinny jean in the 2000s which
carried on the idolisation of fusion of gender. At what point will this gender
evolution stop, or will it remain and we all look the same with only our facial
features to define whether we are male or female? Modern science has increased
chances for humans to enhance their gender appearance, Ivana Milojevic who
wrote “Gender Issues: Futures and Implications
for Global Humanity” stated, “the rates of plastic surgery in the western
world – mostly to enhance one’s desirability and appeal to the other sex – have
been continuously on the rise”, so what’s not to suggest that the small
percentage of surgery could be to enhance opposite sex features on a human?
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