She Wears the Pants

My article on gender-related stigmas in the fashion world from the latest issue of Teen Eye Magazine (Issue 4: Roots)

The classic joke goes ‘A man walks into a bar.’ The punch line could be anything in the world, but my favourite is ‘Bang.’

The first image that comes to mind is one of a slick, suit-clad business-man strolling into a bar and getting struck with a bullet. You may conjure up any number of ideas about the nature of this man, but there are a few undeniable givens:

1. This is an age old joke.

2. The joke evokes the image of a man walking into a bar, ready for a few drinks.

3. The man is wearing pants.

Our society is used to accepting these types of traditions as the norm. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, morning, noon and night. Quiet? Weak. Loud? Strong. Girl? Skirt. Boy? Pants. It is natural for humans to sink into habit and tradition, as it is easier to live without the need to adapt. Hence, most of us stick to our roots and lead our lives without thinking about change. In the fashion industry, the situation is much the same. Stigmas and the ‘rulebook’ rule supreme and form the foundation of even the most innovative design and styling. The stigmas existing in fashion correlate directly to our society. During this period of seemingly stagnant change, the lines around gender identity and clothing continue to be up-kept and broken in different spheres of designers and customers. In preparation for any outing, ranging from red carpet events to school dances, males will almost always turn up in a suit and pants, whereas women are most likely to wear a dress or skirt; pant and jumpsuits are a rare but more welcome occurrence than men in skirts. These strong associations between garment and gender have existed since the ‘beginning’ of fashion in 1100, when men were accustomed to wearing short tunics with pants, and women were confined to long, dress-like tunics; they have only continued to entrench themselves since.

It is the age of the gender debate, which now encompasses far more than just feminism and women’s rights. Society is becoming comfortable with discussing so many different perspectives on massive topic of gender; gender identity and comfort with one’s own gender identity is one of them. It is easy to get confused amidst all the different opinions, and I often do. However, in initially sorting through all the diverse beliefs and opinions, this confusion is a natural reaction. It then becomes necessary to accept that there will be differing views and diverse people in the world. That is gender equality; not pigeon-holing gender identities with definitions and rules, but accepting that everybody’s take will be slightly different.

This is where the fashion industry comes in. What we wear and how we look largely represents our chosen genders, and deep-rooted stigmas existent in the industry contribute in a major way to how different garments on different genders are perceived. It only takes walking into the correct toilet to realise how shallow gender identity can be. All over the world, the only difference between the two stick figures on toilet doors is that one is wearing pants, and the other is wearing a dress. This representation of the defining point between man and woman is almost comical in its shallow nature and simplicity. Reducing gender identity to wearing either pants or a skirt enforces the idea that in fashion, gender is defined by the garments you wear. However, lately, we have seen members of the industry begin to break down these walls in small ways. In 2015, Acne Studios’ Fall womenswear campaign saw a 12-year-old boy modelling the female garments. Female models Emilie Evander and Marland Backus have appeared on a Gucci menswear runway with no distinction or special reason. However, gender stereotypes still overpower these small protests.

Although clothes are only pieces of material shaped in various ways depending on the designer, they hold sentimental and moral value, which is why they can cause so much controversy and hold so much influence on the power of perception. We judge one another based on what we wear, which is evident in the thriving fashion industry. So when in 1919, Luisa Capetillo became the first woman to wear pants in Puerto Rico and was subsequently sent to jail for her ‘crime’ (charges were later dropped), we witnessed the true power of tradition, and our fear of change. Slowly but surely, pants became a fashionable and mainstream fashion choice for women. Gone are the days of ball gowns and petticoats. The phrase ‘she wears the pants’, often used in reference to relationships and households, is an implication of the association of pants with power. Women now possess the power to wear pants, and are praised for it. When Emma Watson wore pants to the 2014 Golden Globes, she was labelled by Huffington Post as ‘the coolest because she wore pants’. Wearing pants for women is not seen as ‘gender bending’ or wrong in any way. It is a positive fashion statement and widely accepted by society, overruling the toilet door stereotype of femininity.

In contrast, when Jaden Smith recently became the face of the Louis Vuitton SS16 womenswear campaign and was photographed wearing a skirt, it warranted harsh negative comments, questioning ‘Why you have a man Jaden Smith dressing like a woman?…the designs are fantastic but why is it okay for Jaden Smith to wear a skirt not a kilt?” To be entirely casual and frank, these comments upset and confused me. Why is a kilt more acceptable to wear than a skirt? Evidently, the kilt holds meaningful cultural tradition and sentimental value in a masculine sense as a garment, but realistically, it is pretty much a skirt for a man. Just because Smith made the conscious choice to dismiss the invisible ‘rule’ that men cannot wear skirts, doesn’t mean he must be labelled as a ‘woman’ for his actions. Men’s fashion stores sell suits, trousers, t-shirts, shirts and jumpers. I’ve always marvelled at how my brother manages to look different every day with the range of clothes he possesses. The truth is, men are highly marginalised in the fashion department. There is much less innovation and much less coverage on men’s fashion, due to the lack of change and the lack of acceptance of new concepts for men in the industry.

Fashion doesn’t have to relate to gender identity, but it can when and if one wants it to. The issue lies in the fact that we struggle to detach the concept of gender and the concept of fashion from one another. If she can wear the pants, then he should be able to wear the skirt. It’s as simple as that. So next time you are lacking conversation topics and decide to throw in a joke, visualise that man walking into a bar.

Wearing whatever he wants.

Love, Ingrid

Read the rest of the Teen Eye Roots issue here at https://issuu.com/teeneye/docs/winter_2016