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The Fluidity and Solidity Of (Gender) Identity In Fashion
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Last week, the New York Times published an article pronouncing the death of the tomboy, and instead trumpeted the timely and politically sensitive rise of the “gender-nonconformist.” For the girls in the market who grow up preferring short crops and easy-to-run-in attire, the tomboy descriptor with its implications of boy-ness apparently no longer applies. Fair enough. But does her preference for the low maintenance and distaste for frills make her a gender-nonconformist, or can’t she still simply be female? Certainly the binary descriptors we’ve been most familiar with all of our lives don’t apply to all, and we champion the ability of everyone to be simply who each is. Likewise we also believe a girl can prefer an aesthetic that men have long claimed their own without losing anything that makes her female, cis-, trans- or otherwise.
Identities can be rummaged for, discovered, forged through fashion. Thanks to the ever-churning seasons, a wealth of fabulous vintage stores, lingerie boutiques, chic department stores, our identities through fashion are in constant re-creation. Fashion is a beautiful, exploratory outlet, and a gorgeous way to explore the fluidity of gender identity—or the fluidity of sartorial, political, social, national, or any other form of identity. Sartorial exploration isn’t necessarily equivalent to gender identity, nonconforming or otherwise. It can be and doesn’t have to be.
Items of clothing and accessories that we as females didn’t “borrow from the boys” (though some would still try to inform otherwise): pants; tuxedo jackets; blazers; oxford shirts; ties; hoodies even. Azzedine Alaïa put his sensual, hourglass-silhouetted woman in pants for the first time this Spring 2016 season. They didn’t come out of a man’s closet. What woman exists as herself more than a confident gal in Spring 2016 Altuzarra’s super clean, fitted black blazer? Or the grey hoodie made spectacularly covetable by Vetements? Or Christian Dior’s subtly striped three-piece suiting? Or Chanel’s backwards baseball cap (perfect for covering up the mess of hair often made on trans-Atlantic flights)? It’s safe to say we’ll inject our wardrobes with our own meaning, thank you. And we won’t be borrowing anything—we’ve got our own.
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createdAt:Fri, 28 Apr 2017 21:16:10 +0000
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