Adrogyny began in the mid 19th century, following outrage that the miners 'pit brow lassies' wore trousers underneath their skirts. This was a scandal to the Victorian Society as it was part of the era in which girls were corseted to enhance the feminity of their figures. In the 40's fashion was simplified to keep in tact with the busier lives of women post war. The dissipation of high couture in Paris, and the introduction of rationing meant that beautiful clothes were slightly harder to come across, and the increase of working rights for women ensured that clothes had to be practical. Up untill the 1960's, women wearing trousers was prohibited in public places and schools, for being too 'overtly masculine'. In 1965, André Courrèges featured trousers and tailoring in his womenswear line, being the first occasion in which long trousers were considered as a fashion item. Since then with the rise of punk in the 1970's, women were persevering an entirely new take on masculinity. The rise of materials such as leather aswell as adrogynous layering built strong connections with adrogyny, forcing our opinion of sexual ambiguity to develop from dislike and disregard into acceptance.
With the history part over, in fashion we can see that adrogyny is still evident in the ready to wear runways. In the recent collections, we can see some clear correlations between the womenswear and menswear.
LES HOMMES A/W 09 ALEXANDER WANG S/S 09- HOLEY T-SHIRTS
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN A/W 09 CHANEL S/S 09- POCKET CHAINS
ETRO A/W 09 CACHAREL S/S 09 - AUTUMNAL SHADE JACKETS
What do you all think of adrogyny? I think that it's fantastic that designers are embracing both sides of human creation and always playing on our ideals of masculine and feminine. There are always some parts of us that correlates between both genders so why not portray this through fashion?
