Androgynous fashion is no longer a subversive movement, making an appearance at the heart of some of the most conservative designers’ shows. It's been decades since Bowie reclined in a full-length dress on the cover of Diamond Dogs and showed us how to pull off the androgynous fashion trend – we’re now seeing labels like Burberry and J.W.Anderson sending out male and female models on one catwalk in genderless designs.
Transgender models, tomboys and everyone in-between are leading the way on demonstrating how to pull off androgyny – a look that takes us all into a future where 'male' or 'female' doesn't matter anymore.
Androgynous pop culture
Although we tend to think of the 60s and 70s as the beginning of gender bending with androgyny, we should look back to the Golden Age of Hollywood for some of the earliest examples. Daughters of the post-suffrage generation, Katherine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich offered a flippant approach to 1930s gender norms. They paved the way for trousers to become a feminine staple – Katherine famously wandered around set in her silk underwear until her confiscated pair had been returned.
We can still see traces of their influence on the catwalks today – Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent has introduced a unisex line, while J.W.Anderson maintains that despite menswear and womenswear labelling, the label's pieces are, in fact, genderless. Stella McCartney outerwear has taken a mannish turn with outsized tailoring and drop shoulders, while Givenchy men's blazers have been photographed draped on numerous female bloggers' shoulders. The iconic three-piece suit Dietrich wore in Morocco (1930) would still make waves today – a sheer body underneath retains a hint of femininity.
The worlds of pop and rock have definitely spotlighted gender bending with the androgynous fashion trend. Considered the Peacock Revolution, the mid-60s were a time when men were challenging pre-determined gender roles. Bowie’s chameleon-like appearance always had a feminine edge, from catsuits and platforms as Ziggy Stardust to his high-cut (ladies') suits as the Thin White Duke.
Although the ‘look’ of a rock or pop star is often in constant flux, the womenswear-as-menswear approach has been a favourite of designers. Alessandro Michele’s first collection for Gucci saw a dramatic departure from the label’s stylised masculinity – pussy-bow blouses worn by models with a distinctly Bowie-esque flair. At Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane sent his rakish models out in eyeliner and heels – Saint Laurent coats worn with a pair of put-on-in-the-bath skinny jeans and Cuban boots exemplify how to pull off androgyny.
Androgyny on the catwalks
The androgynous fashion trend got its start even before Hepburn and Dietrich at the beginning of the 20th Century. With the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom, and a war ravaging the world, women’s roles (and wardrobes) had to adapt. Coco Chanel personified this sudden female independence. Her collections were the antithesis of Edwardian corseted dresses: she offered unstructured jackets, trouser suits and mannish tailoring. “She liberated women from constrictive clothing by making clothes that women could move in,” says Bridget DeChagas, fashion editor at NPR. Yves Saint Laurent took this idea even further. His radical ‘Le Smoking’ suit embraced the masculine roles women were taking on and hinted at the sexual politics that were emerging. While Chanel never counted herself as a feminist, wearing a trouser suit had become a truly feminist act by the mid-60s.
Androgyny in the 90s was a very different matter – with Kate Moss and heroin chic came an appreciation for emaciated torsos with slim hips and flat chests. Calvin Klein spearheaded this grungier approach to how to pull off the androgynous fashion trend and helped bring it into the mainstream. Adverts featuring effeminate men and prepubescent women blurred gender lines in a way not seen since Prince wore knee-high boots. In 2015, Selfridges announced its Agender pop-up, offering avant-garde designers like Comme des Garçons and Haider Ackermann styled to suit a contemporary androgynous aesthetic. John Galliano’s Artisanal collection for Maison Margiela AW15 saw a collection of male models walk for Couture Fashion Week. Wearing Maison Margiela skirts, mirrored breastplates and cobalt lipstick, they offered men an offbeat lesson in how to dress in an androgynous way.
Out on the streets
But when it comes to gender bending with androdynous fashion, there are a handful of models who give us the best examples. Perhaps most famous is Bosnian-Australian model Andreja Pejić who has walked in both men's and women's catwalk shows since being discovered when she was just 17 years old. A favourite of Jean Paul Gaultier, Pejić once said, “androgyny became a way of expressing my femininity” (Vogue 2014). In 2014, she went through reassignment surgery and became the first transgender model to be profiled in Vogue, with the intent that her career will fit around her female identity.
Swiss-born Tamy Glauser, with her severe buzzcut and feline face, suggests that thinking about how to dress in an androgynous way comes from within, rather than choosing to put on a men’s jacket. Having walked for Givenchy and Louis Vuitton menswear collections, Glauser is an authority on the matter. While it was her own suggestion that she model menswear, she is tiring of the androgynous label itself: “If you want to call me anything, call me a tomboy, it's cuter,” she told i-D in 2015. Since breaking out onto the modelling scene, she has become a favourite of Vuitton and Westwood, having walked for both gendered lines too.