Shifting the Borders

According to society, clothing is considered one of the first images we give others to express our

gender and the fashion industry have played a fundamental role throughout the years.

Nowadays, fashion is starting to pay less attention to everyone's clothing, whether they are for women or men, and give more priority to feeling, look and aesthetic. Therefore, the limits of typical gender have been broken and people are becoming more confident in self-expression, clothes are only clothes, no gender at all. Genderless is not an abolition of differences, but it’s an elevation: getting out from a cage of masculine and feminine to experience total freedom. Free to be different and free to choose whatever complies with our soul and attitude, personality and social identity.

Gender fluidity is not a new concept born recently but it has more deep roots in fashion history.

Indeed, there are some great icons that have taken a big step towards this aspect of fashion in which anyone can wear what they want without distinction of gender.

Frida Kahlo was feminist, queer, disabled, gender fluid and revolutionary, that’s why she is considered an icon to so many marginalized groups.

Her family allowed her to explore the non-traditional gender so she kept her androgynous appearance with unibrow, mustache and strong features even in her portraits.

Coco Chanel was the most revolutionary designer of the 20th century becoming the symbol of female emancipation and changing the way women dress.

She has reinvented many codes of the male wardrobe for women's collections, for example, the tweed suits.

In the twenties, the first to dare male clothes in the cinema was Louise Brooks. Icon of style and spokesperson of free femininity.

The real queen of the androgynous style, Marlene Dietrich, shocked the public opinion when she appeared in a men’s suit with a hat.

The actress Katharine Hepburn embraced menswear clothing in successful films, but also in private life. For her, this style was an expression of a personality.

A very rare example of the androgynous style is Judy Garland in the 50s, who dances in a male jacket.

In 1966 Yves Saint Laurent launched the tuxedo for women: it was a real revolution and the use of feminine men's clothing becomes the new elegance.

David Bowie in 1972 as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust with strong make-up and prominent cheekbones, showing off the androgynous look.

The performer Annie Lennox is knowing for her tightly cropped, orange hair and dashing taste in suit wear.

Grace Jones was one of the most influential and iconic symbols of androgynous style. In 1980 she poses in a sharp-shouldered suit with a cigarette dangling from her mouth for the cover of the album “Nightclubbing”. She broke the boundaries between what was considered feminine and masculine, putting herself in the middle.

The male model Tanel Bedrossiantz in a dress with a cone bra by the designer Jean Paul Gaultier. He has always presented his own ideas about gender through his design, putting men in skirts and women in tailoring, breaking the gender stereotypes.

Androgyny is a Greek word that means man and woman, referring to the combination of the two genders. Androgynus is a person who doesn’t fit in gender categories of masculinity and femininity, how they should behave in a certain society and culture. This term can be considered a synonym of gender-neutral, gender fluid, agender, gender-queer, non-gendered. Taking this into consideration, it’s not correct to equate this term with the sexuality of people, androgynous is more about personal identity.

© Photography by Peter Lindbergh

Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista

"Omaggio allo stile di Al Capone" Vogue Italia, February 1991

Excerpt from master's thesis at IED Milano