Men in Dresses: Are Fashion Binaries Stagnant or Shattering?
Graphic by Quynh-Nhi Tran.
Everyone is obsessed with men wearing dresses. When singer Harry Styles wore a ruffled Gucci gown on the cover of Vogue last year, the internet went ablaze and every journalist had a say on the topic. Similarly, rapper Kid Cudi wore a Kurt Cobain inspired dress during his “Saturday Night Live” performance and followed up with a wedding dress at the CFDA fashion awards that Vogue called the “boldest look of the night.”
Images courtesy of (from left to right) Vogue, Teen Vogue and Billboard.
Underlying these so-called revolutionary looks is a larger conversation about appropriating queer culture. Actor Billy Porter criticized Styles’ cover photo saying that it only captured mainstream attention because he is “white and straight,” since Porter himself is known to wear lavish, untraditional looks on the red carpet. As gender-fluid dressing becomes more mainstream, it’s important to remember its roots and history as a larger socio-political movement.
Designers are quickly picking up on the current menswear demand for traditionally women’s clothing: male models are now walking the runway in halter-tops, dresses and skirts.
For the Spring Summer 2023 season, designer Simone Rocha debuted her new menswear line. Known for her use of tulle, pearls and ruffles, she carried these ostentatious, beautifully feminine design codes into her menswear. Surprisingly, she didn’t apply her methods to traditional menswear silhouettes; instead, she dressed the male models in just as many tulle gowns (albeit a few had trousers styled with them). For the most part, the men’s and women’s collections were one-and-the-same.
Images courtesy of Vogue Runway.
Peter Do, one of the hottest New York based designers, debuted menswear in his S/S 2023 collection, tailoring menswear to feature more feminine silhouettes. Men’s suits appeared standard from the front but were entirely backless. Models wore cleavage-bearing silky blouses that played with typical masculine shirt design. The show was a strong outing for Do, as he solidified his brand’s position as a tailoring and commercial powerhouse.
Images courtesy of (from left to right) HypeBae and Models.com.
Regardless of how incredible the clothes were for both Rocha and Do, it is odd that they felt the need to create menswear lines, since the clothes for women and men were extremely similar. Maybe they intended to capture male buyers who didn’t find womenswear accessible enough to their lifestyle.
Dividing up fashion into mens and womenswear while also touting gender fluidity is a laughable oxymoron.
The creation of men’s and women’s lines that have gender fluid clothing seems like it's mostly there to give men the green light when they’re too scared to just buy a dress. Men could have bought looks from any other Peter Do season, though his consumer base will definitely sky-rocket with the creation of a separate menswear line. The same goes for Rocha.
Some brands have refused to divide up their clothing into gendered categories and don’t make concessions for male buyers.
Miu Miu’s Fall Winter 2022 show continued the brand’s hot streak, utilizing similar chopped and cropped sets and sweaters as in its previous Spring Summer show. What caught audience’s attention this time was the appearance of several masculine presenting non-binary and male-identifiying models. Speculation instantly began over whether Miu Miu’s menswear line was finally making a return, to which Miu Miu responded with nothing.
Images courtesy of Vogue Runway.
Rather than create a separate line, Mrs. Prada simply showed the boys that the viral-cropped sets can be theirs too. An incredibly powerful move.
Hillary Taymour, Creative Director of Collina Strada, is another designer who doesn’t care to mess around with labels. She continues to present whimsical, child-like clothing that is shown on everyone: male, female, non-binary and everyone in between. Taymour has proposed a magical way of dressing that is focused on having fun. Collina Strada models pranced in horse-girl garb the S/S 23 runway, waving their arms in butterfly motions and carrying absurd accessories like a head of broccoli turned-handbag.
The fashion ideal that Collina Strada imagines is exactly what fashion should be. Why do we continue to bother with labeling and categorizing or telling people what they can and cannot wear? Let fashion be fun, expressive and whatever the individual decides.
Images courtesy of Vogue Runway.