Breaking Gender Norms (Article

In the past, women were only allowed to wear dresses or skirts, however, that was not the case for men. As recently as 2013, women were technically outlawed from wearing trousers in France (BBC). But, times have changed.

Nowadays, breaking gender norms in fashion is even more common. More than ever, people are searching for an ideal of fashion that could be genderless. The fashion world aspires to revolutionise itself, break the codes, and even eliminate them. Gender has always been central, especially in the making of fashion garments.

Dresses = Women’s clothing Trousers = Men’s clothing

How can we break these famous fashion codes? In what way does genderless fashion represent beauty or art? Society enforces binary fashion on younger generations and has encouraged the creation of a framework in which it is impossible to escape, particularly with the high risk of marginalisation. we haven’t seen before. In fact, this was already the case in ancient Egypt, when the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut reigned over Egypt by pretending to be a Pharaoh, wearing a false beard and male regalia (royal Egyptian clothing).

Believe it or not, it was men who were the first to wear high heels. They were first worn by Persian soldiers in the 10th century, followed then by European aristocrats in the 17th century. Worn in a very passive way, the heels gave an air of power, superiority and grandeur. One of the most well-known figures that wore high-heels was the Sun King, Louis XIV. His love for heels was so intense that he passed an official order stating that only nobility could wear them.

In the past, clothing items such as dresses were considered gender-neutral, exempt from the scandal dress wearing has brought with it in recent decades. Today, male children in dresses is shocking for society, but it used to be perfectly normal and there was no differentiation between boys and girls clothing. Gendered clothing became particularly popular after World War II.

Little girls have to grow up in pink. Little boys are surrounded by blue.

We have to be aware that we currently are in the era of gender fluidity, of fashion neutrality. It is no longer a question of designing according to the genre, but according to one’s desires and tastes. However, this is not something new or that

Most clothing pieces have a very specific purpose - to change things, sometimes for comfort, sometimes for practicality or sometimes to claim a denied right. In terms of women’s clothing, it was only during the twentieth century that women began to acquire their fundamental rights and liberate themselves clothing-wise. Little by little, they adopted atypical looks, starting with what was called “à la garçonne” look, revolutionised by Coco Chanel, who introduced men’s clothes for women. The same goes for Yves Saint Laurent, who introduced “smoking”, a male associated activity to women in 1966, as a symbol of empowerment, freedom and self-confidence.

Fashion, history and art all influence one another. We have flashbacks of the past, of what life, art and clothing was like before, of timeless heritage. The world found and can find in fashion a way to express itself, a way to be free. People are shaping, creating, they are actors of this constant transformation. Indeed, Zendaya recently released her collection of clothes, which for the most part, are non-gendered. During one of her interviews, she was asked the following question: “Why genderless?”, and she simply answered, “It’s the future of fashion”. Gender fluidity in fashion is more common among women and has been for decades. However, for men, it is a new freedom, an opportunity to be seized, still very uncommon. Thus, it is only in recent years that we have observed the emancipation of men’s fashion. And Harry Styles is a clear example of this movement. He has made history, by being the first man to pose for the biggest fashion magazine, Vogue, wearing a dress. Styles advocates for a fashion that is tolerant, and a fashion that is artistic, rather than gendered. It is about feeling valued in clothes that represent our identity and our personality.

Photography : Songju Kang

Stylist : Olusola Awosika

Makeup Artist : Natalia Jakubowska

Models: Safa Khan, Victoria Andrews, Zaki Afnoukh, Sarah Mokhtari