Society’s gaze in recent times has collectively zoomed in on, double-tapped and reshared a fashion ‘statement’ that unlike most, has almost nothing to do with the actual garment and everything to do with the wearer.
We’ve seen the ‘male dress’ on a range of icons – from Lewis Hamilton, Billy Porter and Harry Styles (who might as well be the poster-child for the look) to hip-hop’s makers and shakers; including Kanye West, Lil Nas X, Kid Cudi, Jaden Smith and ASAP Rocky.
Now, of all the things people might decide for themselves that a male wearing a dress-like ensemble in 2021 says, there’s really one sentence that it roars in bold and truth:
“I’ll wear what I like.”
In the heat of the 21st century which we are now revelling in – the ‘male dress’ look is in short, a statement that tells society some things shouldn’t be a statement anymore writes Cape {town} Etc’s Ashleigh Nefdt.
If the trend alludes to challenging traditional or Western understandings of masculine and feminine, it’s doing so by asking society a pivotal question: why are some people so afraid of a little dress on a male?
The ‘dress’ may soon reach the androgynous status as pants did. When women in the 21st-century dive into a pair of pants, it’s not the same socio-political fire that fuels our decision to challenge the patriarchy that existed back in the 50s. I certainly don’t feel like I’m screaming masculine energy when I slide into a pair of pants, and my curious eyes look toward the horizon whereby men can slide into a dress just as casually.
What we’re talking about here is feminine associations and fashion. What we’re talking about is the option to embody the associations when we choose – but to leave space for garments to be for everyone too.
Now, depending on where you stand on the liberal spectrum, the vision of the likes of Kid Cudi in a gown might make you feel uncomfortable or entirely free.
And so we go back to the question: who decided a dress belonged on a female anyway?
The answer is society – and a narrative written not so long ago.
Why did ‘dresses’ come to be seen as feminine in the first place?
Actually, for a long time, a very long time, and most of time in fact- they weren’t at all.
Back in the day, skirts, dresses and the like were the bread and butter of what everybody wore – for centuries. Additionally, these sartorials, or ‘non-divided garments’ weren’t even called dresses either. Androgynous clothing was as hot as Jordans today.
In a brilliant article by fashion historian Lydia Edwards, the dress’s true history came to light in ties to the recent revival. Spoiler? Most of the overpowered masculine beings throughout time were being overpowered masculine beings in dress or skirt-like attire.
As JP Thorp notes, “whether you were fighting, building, farming or engaging in some kind of religious ritual, skirts were cheap and efficient to use.”
There were the ancient Egyptian Pharos and their schentis (a wrap skirt like a kilt) which was a norm and trend so hot it burnt over 2 000 years.
The ancient Greeks and Romans, who divided and conquered in tunics, which both the goddesses and warriors wore and Ornate military costumes for Aztecs.
The medieval men who fitted tunics over their hose (as it was socially unacceptable not to and of course your knight in shining armour who was also wearing none-other-than a pleated metal skirt.
The chiton and toga, loincloths and gauzy wraps all dressed the men (and women) of history.
And in many parts of the world that are not the West, they still do. Travel to some parts of South Asia and sometimes you’ll be the out-one out if you’re a male wearing pants, where skirts known as Gho are still worn. In Figi and Japan, the fluidity of dress too isn’t quite so frustrating.
So- why are pants seen as masculine?
After that brief fashion history lesson – you might wonder where pants actually started making a name for themselves and why.
According to Thorp, trousers started sneaking onto the scene for one reason – it was practical.
The cold, and a necessity for horse-riding saw the two-legged beast emerge, and this melted into military kits too (which in some places, naturally required horse riding and fighting off the cold). Tailoring also came about, bringing trousers into Europe’s mainstream fashion kick. We also can’t forget that when Christianity started to spread throughout the world with it came much of European culture and under medieval emperor Charlemagne – a militaristic and male-dominant association with pants.
And since girls were not involved in many of the traditionally masculine activities like fighting wars on horse-back, we got to keep the dresses – and with it the tag of femininity.
Cue masculine and feminine divide based on ‘who wears the pants’.
The 18th, 19th and 20th centuries saw an obvious sort of obsession with unnecessarily categorising everything and associating certain items to certain kinds of people – from gender to race, categories. Today, although many of us may be aware of this, we still subscribe to it.
It’s almost understandable why when you consider a little trick called “breaching”.
In the 18th century, this practice of “breeching” came into fashion prominently – seeing small boys given their first pair of trousers to prove that they’d gone beyond infancy. It was a rite of passage, as the Jane Austen Centre notes.
And over time, other objects followed suit beyond fashion. The baby boomers in the 1940s especially saw sex-specific clothing and ‘generally accepted rules’ for colour-sex designation (imagine something as innocent as a colour being associated with masculinity or femininity? Oh wait…)
But now we’re in 2021 and the way society thinks is changing.
Now, racing back to the prime of the 21st century in 2021 (and sighing with relief that a girl can like blue and a boy pink if we so choose), and after a brief but important acknowledgement of all the champions who got us as far as we’ve come, we stand at the foreground with the dress in front of us and who it belongs to.
Will the dress become a part of the norm for men?
If we take away the associations, pour in the thought that it can be feminine if desired but not always, and allow people to simply do what makes them feel good in fashion as people and not genders, then in my opinion there’s a great chance it could become a norm.
And a huge shout-out for some indication of progression comes from an unlikely culprit in the traditional perspective, namely hip-hop culture. Artists from Jaden Smith to Tyler the Creator and Frank Ocean are embracing femininity. Even artists who aren’t openly homosexual have dabbled in feminine concepts, and ASAP Rocky rules this roost. Recently, Kid Cudi wore a dress in ode to Kurt Cobain that had the world talking. What we can take away from a traditionally hyper-masculine niche in music diving into femininity, or just doing what they like, shows us that it’s all possible for something as simple as a dress to weave its way back into a space for anyone.
Also Read:
WATCH: Adele helps man pull off a marriage proposal that we won’t soon forget
Picture: Vogue