A Piece of Fabric has no Gender Label: Upsetting the Fashion Status Quo.
When you hear rants, comments, and grumbles about how a person clothes in a judgemental tone, you’re thinking, is this what generation x and y’s think about fashion? Truth is, this thinking of labeling a piece of fabric into what’s only for girls and what’s only for boys, were passed through generations. As traditional and conservative principles were living in most of the people, sewn fabrics were now assumingly delegated to a specific gender. They often say that women who wear a suit and tie, or guys wearing crops and skirts are gay. It even went to an extent where colors were also labeled — as pink is for girls only, black is for rebel, orange doesn’t look good, green’s for lesbians, etc. These stereotypes are just stupid.
Crop tops were originated around the 1970s to 1980, and guys were comfortable and proud wearing them. It shows comfort and style that no one even judges their sexuality for wearing those. Then the 2000s came, toxic masculinity arises, you’ll be deemed gay if you’re a guy wearing one. Suit & Tie shows professionalism, respect, and it’s just edgy. But old minds think that these are only for the guys, and women should wear dresses and heels. And that’s a lot more to start with this toxic masculinity, social norms principles uphold. It will literally take out your freedom of self-expression and make you feel any less of yourself just because you’re following your desired style and comfort. Little did they know, that there weren’t even social norms in fashion when it was established.
Just a little jump from centuries ago, people from biblical times (as it was written, interpreted, portrayed, and generalized) wear the same looks of clothing — regardless if you’re a man or woman. A knee or full-length tunic cloth, or a robe wrapped around them. And as time evolves, men started wearing two-legged bottoms (which we call pants) and they were removing themselves on the same clothe types as women. Tunics and Robes were diminished on men, whilst the women stayed carrying out a dress, skirt, or ball gown. Still, relative with the tunics and robes. Then, as you can see with how modernization rises — both genders wear similarly categorized tops and pants.
So even before Harry Styles started wearing baggy women’s pants, or Jaden Smith ended skirts stereotypes, Billie Eilish started getting up street style using men's clothes — there is already a non-stereotyping genderless fashion living in our culture. It just depended on the generations that pass by fashion culture on how they see it. Fortunately, still, there are some people in older generations that see clothes as a genderless, way of style and expression.
Here are some examples wherein famous people broke the headlines and screamed “Fashion is genderless!”
When Harry Styles left One Direction, he literally created a blast with his name. Being one of the popular people to break gender stereotypes in fashion. Colorful Manicures, Pearl Necklace, Skirts, Lace Blouse, Purple Scarf — name it, nothing masculine or feminine Harry cannot pull off. He’s a real trendsetter.
Girls should wear makeup, dresses that show cleavages, shiny blonde or brunette to make themselves iconically beautiful? No, that's not the rule. Billie showed she can be beautiful, iconic, cool, and a trendsetter without following the beauty rules of being a female pop star.
- Jaden Smith is one of the biggest names when it comes to gender-fluid fashion. In 2016, Jaden appeared in a Louis Vuitton womenswear campaign, and his getup is a crochet top, a cool leather jacket, and a pleated skirt. And things add up, he wore skirts, manicures, etc. And then he established his own clothing line with the same theme — breaking gender norms in fashion. He said that he did it not just because he likes it, but he also wants this generation and the newer generations to normalize it.
- Billy Porter wowed the people when he showed up at the Academy Awards 2019 in a Christian Siriano piece — a tuxedo or suit constructed at the top and a ball gown at the bottom. He wrote, “My goal is to be a walking piece of political art every time I show up.” in Vogue.
- Grace Jones is one of the originals when it comes to this advocate. She used fashion to showcase her gender expression, and her love and perseverance to represent the androgyny. She said, “I was outside race and gender.”
- Kristen Stewart recently came out as queer, and that is when she felt comfortable discussing her relationships in public. Even before this, it has been seen how she breaks fashion norms by styling suit and ties on her, and some articles even mentioned or labeled her as the reincarnation of James Dean.
These headliners, trendsetters, only have one goal in common — remove stereotypes. Men can be as sophisticated and delicate as a woman, and women can be edgy, strong, and cool just like a man. This is how fashion should be, and if ever it’ll be constructed and drawn by time, we hope that the social norms about gender-labeling a piece of cloth will not be a thing anymore.
