Androgynous fashion, for those not sure, is a style in which one does not dress in order to look particularly male or female, it intends to challenge gender stereotypes.
Throughout the millennia’s, androgyny has endured, sustained and as of 2018 standards; incorporated itself into every one of us in some way or another. I mean who doesn’t own a pair of boyfriend jeans nowadays?
Androgynous fashion was first identified with women such as Marlene Dietrich and Coco Chanel, women who openly wore trousers exclusively to prove that fashion should no longer be dominated by the rigid restrictions of the demure Victorian taste. Never again should women be compelled to dress for demeanour and manner rather than comfort and expression. The trend was subsequently tied to the idea of LGBTQ and the Feminist wave. It appeared as a rebellion, a mutiny against the patriarchy when it reality it was campaigning for the fluency of fashion in regards to the sexes and a refusal to suppress one’s self for gender norms.
When the need to canvass for liberation arose in situations such as the Suffrage movement and other occurrences alike, women acknowledged the stigma that was attached to androgynous fashion and took it to extremities (as far as the 1900’s went). If wearing a suit and donning a masculine silhouette was an excuse to assert control and dominance, then you bet these women were going to do just that and prove that gender has no physical command over anyone. An independency started to spread among those that resented society’s idea of masculinity and femininity; and ultimately how they were expressed.
As time passed, fashion sought to emulate social norms with contemporary new items of clothing. Women felt confined within their homes, forced to raise their children alone and wait for their husbands to get home from work. The female pant suit and the tuxedo were introduced to demonstrate how backwards society was. If a woman just needed a pair of straight leg trousers and a jacket with shoulder pads to make her confident enough to exude fierce independence and free will, it was verification enough that femininity could imitate masculinity, and indeed vice versa. Men like David Bowie demonstrated reasoning and sense across all aspects of the gender issue by being able to accept and espouse their femininity without having to renounce their sexuality.
We are luckily a part of a generation of people that have welcomed androgynous fashion, so much so that it has become a social norm. We now openly adopt clothes based on the cut, the shape, the silhouette and the personality. The androgynous normality and integrity that our era has achieved shows itself everyday through its appreciation of women donning full suits, owning buzz cuts and nailing ANY silhouette, Grace Jones I’m talking about you and men free to grow their hair as long as they want, swagger around in the highest of heels, and flaunt their most effeminate features, all without the apprehension of shame or contempt. Androgynous fashion is peaking and thanks to the likes of Annie Lennox and Prince, we have singers, actors and models like Lady Gaga, Glenn Close and Jelle Haen paving the way for further development and commendation of androgynous fashion