Androgyny

In the constant rubric "Tendency" we closely look at trends that in one way or another affect our appearance every six months, but we reflect on them in the context of more significant trends.

In the new material "Androgyny," Look At Me finds out why girls dress up as guys, and guys as girls.

Text: Liza Kologreeva

How and why designers turned to androgyny

Androgyny is closer than it seems. Look at girls and boys of about sixteen: most wear hoodies, extremely tight jeans and sneakers - it can be difficult to distinguish a girl from a boy. Adolescents owe their style to the work of Edie Slimane of the early 2000s and street culture. They certainly do not care that in the new season, Stella McCartney and Hyder Ackermann dress models like men's suits, and fashion models Jonathan Anderson and Raf Simons defile in dresses. At first, designers and stylists experimented with dressing Andrei Pezic as a girl and Saskia de Brau as a boy, and now Kanye West performs at a concert in a Givenchy skirt.

From left to right, top to bottom: Saskia de Brau for Saint Laurent; Max Mara campaign; Saskia de Brau for Aspesi; Celine campaign; Tilda Swinton on the cover of The Rooms; Saskia de Brau in the campaign of Giorgio Armani; Kate Moss for Rag & Bone; Versace campaign; tomboy campaign

It is believed that the beginning of androgyny as a phenomenon in fashion put Yves Saint Laurent - in 1966, the designer put women in a tuxedo. A decade earlier, girls from Bohemia and the working class experimented with men's clothing, contrasting their style with Diorovsky's new bow. Long before that, in the 1920s, the flappers put on a cloche hats, thanks to which the hairstyles looked boyish and loose dresses — the antipodes of complex designs of corsets and fluffy skirts, symbolizing gender equality. However, these were only the first steps of the androgynous fashion: in the 1970s David Bowie appeared on the scene, popularizing the image of the androgynous ones, and in the eighties the world began talking about a businesswoman class, wearing jackets as if from a man’s shoulder with a pair of wide pants. What happened next - you already know.

Trends of androgynous fashion

Everything is simple here: girls wear clothes for boys, guys wear clothes for girls. Of course, it means only the stylization of the bow under the wardrobe of the opposite sex: a girl in a badly fitting male suit, and even more so a guy in a real woman's dress would look ridiculous. If you decide to experiment with gender, look at the masculine collections Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger and feminine images from Raf Simons.

WOMEN'S CLOTHES ON MEN

Jonathan Anderson and Walter Van Beyrendonk suggest wearing dresses, Raf Simons - long shirts with pink cloaks, and Comme des Garcons - hats with ears and clothes in pastel colors. To follow their advice or not is up to you.

MEN'S CLOTHING ON WOMEN

Designers often argue about strong women and dress them in the form of men's suits, like Mary Katrantzou or Mulberry. Antonio Marras and Max Mara interpret the military style: their models wear camouflage and khaki. Sportmax simply hides the figures of their clients under baggy clothes, which is why the brand’s colleagues, such as Simon Por Jacmel and Stella McCartney, are not in the first season.

Androgyne to the cinema

Not so long ago, David Bowie and Tilda Swinton released a music video with Andrey Pezic and Saskia de Brau on the dancer. This is a signal that we could easily limit ourselves to listing the roles of Bowie and Swinton in the movie. However, remember the girlfriend of Annie Hall in the eponymous film by Woody Allen, who is credited with the love of androgynous images in the films, as well as the characters “Let Me In” and “Soldier Jane”, who are hard to recognize gender.

Androgynous things in online stores

Among the women's and men's things in online stores are quite courageous and feminine items, respectively. In the first case, choose a free jacket and shorts, you can in a strip, simple shoes and, say, a backpack. In the second - elongated or transparent tops and skirts.