Unisex clothing: Increasingly men are wearing womenswear and this trend has been unexpectedly successful!
- The gender-based dressing has been the norm since time immemorial.
- Since the last century or so, women have been increasingly wearing men’s clothing, especially in the Western world.
- But now young men are also swapping trousers for womenswear.
Several male celebrities have proudly on the red carpet donned clothes that were until now considered to be only for women. The younger generation is fed up with the traditional restrictions to limit gendered dressing.
The young men are experimenting and are switching to unisex clothes. Accordingly, fashion houses and designers have noted this trend and are incorporating it into designing new clothes for both genders.
Men in womenswear
More and more young men want to change their traditional wear. They are now wearing womenswear on the red carpet. Last year, during the Academy Awards, actor Billy Porter made a public appearance in a gown designed by Christian Siriano. This made him within a second a social-media sensation. It was a tailor-made black-velvet tuxedo from the waist up.
And below was a great swaying bell of a skirt. Both the fabric and the shape were heavy and full. The gown hid his heels which were 6 inches.
Billy remarked:
“The conversation about fluidity inside of clothing is one of the last frontiers. We’ve moved from women wearing pants being a bad thing. Now it’s actually gone so far in the other direction and is considered so normal. But if you put a man in a dress, it’s [considered] disgusting.”
Actor Will Smith’s gay son, Jaden Smith, Harry Styles, and Ranveer Singh also have been similarly seen in women’s skirts on the red carpet.
The world’s reaction to such changed wear of men
The world has taken note of this change. But there is not much of a negative reaction to it. People are elated and feel that it is a time ripe enough for a change.
They are happy with the boldness of the young stars who have taken this step into the opposite-sex fashion world.
This break from conventional dressing has been a success and welcomed by one and all. Dan/Dannielle Owens-Reid is the founder and chief executive of Radimo LA, a gender-fluid clothing brand.
He stated:
“I loved [it],”
“It had me think about all the kids who were seeing themselves represented on TV for the first time.”
The past incidents of such unisex clothing
This trend of men wearing womenswear is not new. In the past, Marlene Dietrich had cross-dressing in the 1930s. David Bowie had done Aladdin Sane incarnation in the ’70s and Prince had worn a powerfully ambiguous dress on the cover of 1988’s Lovesexy.
New data has revealed that 12% of millennials are gender-non-conforming. 60% of Gen Zers (7-22 years of age) are shopping for both gendered sections in stores and supermarkets.
Many are now non-binary which means that they do not relate to men or women or heterosexuals or homosexuals. They adopt pronouns such as they/them rather than he/him or she/her.
Also, read Genderless fashion: After unisex clothing, celebrity men are now embracing jewelry!
Accordingly, fashion houses and designers are also now designing such types of unisex wear for both genders. People feel that sex is determined at birth but gender is constructed by society. Hence they do not want to stick to societal norms and behave in that manner.
