CHALLENGING “GENDER NORMS” THROUGH FASHION

In the 1940s and 50s, in the USA, police arrested multiple people for wearing clothing that wasn’t seen as typical for their gender assigned at birth. Many of these people were LGBT+. In New York City, a law prohibiting the wearing of clothing not typical to your gender assigned at birth did not exist, but it is believed police used laws named the ‘Masquerade Laws’ that prohibited ‘costumed dress’, to enable them to target LGBT+ people. It was widely believed in the LGBT+ community and used as an informal rule of thumb, that if you wore at least three items of clothing ‘typical’ of your gender assigned at birth, then the police would not arrest you. So, a woman wearing a shirt and trousers could be arrested for not wearing enough clothing typical to her gender.

LGBT+ fashion designers, throughout history and today, have designed pieces to challenge and breakdown gender stereotypes, and challenge what “masculinity” and “femininity” can look like.

This dress by gay designer Alessandro Michele for Gucci fashion house was worn by singer Harry Styles for a Vogue magazine cover.

Christian Siriano is a gay designer who is renowned for dressing women of all shapes and sizes. More recently, Siriano has been designing show-stopping gowns for male actor, Billy Porter.

Cara Delevingne wearing a tuxedo to the wedding of Princess Eugenie. It was designed by Giorgio Armani, who is believed to be the richest openly bisexual person in the world.