{"data":[{"id":158,"submitterId":321,"answerId":57,"questionText":"I am writing my A-level dissertation on gender roles in fashion and am also putting together my own fashion magazine. I am interested in the extent to which fashion reflects the gender stereotypes and patterns of today’s European society. And how can I engage with them creatively myself?","questionShort":"How does fashion reflect gender roles and gender identity?","note":null,"easyLanguage":false,"userBackground":"Pupil","precision":5,"duration":7,"attachment":null,"thumbnail":null,"confidential":false,"status":"PUBLISHED","assignedExpertId":416,"assignedExpert":{"id":416,"firstName":"Priska","lastName":"Gisler","slug":"priska-gisler","image":"a403abc6-e15c-4d0a-9534-8b4d63a17c3d.webp","title":"Prof. Dr.","organization":{"id":10,"name":"Berner Fachhochschule"},"knowledgeCharacter":{"title":"designer","bgColor":"lightblue","textColor":"blue","description":"Die Konstrukter:in folgt ihren Ideen. Sie hat ein tiefes Verständnis für Materialien, Fertigkeiten und Technologien. Im Gespräch nutzt sie ihre Kreativität, um Lösungen vorzuschlagen oder Situationen zu verändern.","image":"konstrukteurin.webp"}},"createdAt":"2024-03-04T14:07:14+00:00","updatedAt":"2024-09-16T17:55:45+00:00","submitter":{"id":321,"email":null,"firstName":"Clea","lastName":"Fistarol","image":null,"title":"-"},"answer":{"id":57,"expertId":416,"answerText":"

Dear Clea Fistarol,

thank you very much for your question. It calls for a detailed answer, which I probably cannot provide in this format, as entire essays and books could be written on the subject. However, I’d be happy to try and touch on a few points related to this which might help you to deal creatively with the way gender stereotypes are reflected in fashion.

Fashion is, of course, subject to the trends of gender constructions, and this is by no means a recent phenomenon.

It is therefore no surprise that in the very conservative 1950s, when women were sent back to the kitchen after the Second World War, stereotypical images of women in aprons became very common (see, for example, the magazine Vienna Museums). As the European economy began to recover somewhat in the 1960s, it became possible to experiment more freely with fashion; women began wearing shorter skirts and dresses or opting for trousers much more frequently.

Today, in Western countries, we are seeing signs that gender-stereotypical clothing styles are breaking down; fashion is becoming queer, and Germany’s Next Top Model can also be transgender. However, fashion competitions such as GNTM in particular demonstrate just how much conservatism still prevails in the fashion industry; even in 2024, the awards ceremony remains tied to binary gender categories.

The numerous blog posts on TradWives are an indication that, alongside the dissolution, blending or diversification of gender identities, a return to tradition and a reliance on a classic binary gender system is also taking place in fashion (see also Wikipedia).

Depending on the economic climate, it is presumably easier to link certain social characteristics more strongly to fashion, to downplay them, or to dissolve them altogether. The way in which gender identities are expressed through fashion is always dependent on prevailing perspectives and classifications of social relations, and thus also on gender. And following these brief historical reflections, some sociological ones:

Fashion can be understood as an expression of cultural, social and economic capital, as the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu would have put it. How people dress depends on their financial resources, but also on their education or membership of certain social groups. At the same time, it is part of the (only partly voluntary) work on the self and is therefore always an expression of identity. In other words, someone dresses (consciously or unconsciously) in a certain way and is consequently perceived accordingly, which in turn reinforces their sense of self and their behaviour.

However, fashion has an even more far-reaching significance for gender roles, namely because it is linked to specific production conditions. We must not forget the people who manufacture the clothes in the fashion industry. Increasingly, the production of these items is being outsourced to people – often women – in low-wage countries. Added to this is the destruction of local textile and clothing production in countries of the Global South, caused by the redistribution of second-hand garments – purchased and barely worn – by transnational recycling companies.

A wonderful example of everything involved in the production of a haute couture garment is the play Lacrima by Caroline Guiela Nguyen. It tells the fictional story of the making of a wedding dress for the English princess and highlights how heavily the production of clothes today depends not only on gender, but also on race, class and geopolitical factors.

You can find out more about “Lacrima” here. And a photo from the announcement for the play:

You’re in luck, too, because a brand-new book is due to be published shortly, edited by art historians from the ZHdK and focusing on fashion and gender:

Schlittler, Anna-Brigitte & Tietze, Katharina (eds.). 2024. Fashion and Gender. New Contributions to the Debate. Bielefeld. The book will soon be open access .

The following recent book also explores the crossing of gender boundaries in fashion:

Reilly, Andrew & Barry, Ben (Eds.). 2020. Crossing Gender Boundaries. Fashion to Create, Disrupt and Transcend. Bristol. The book is open access .

I hope this has been of some help to you, and I send my warmest regards!

Priska

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Fashion

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How does fashion reflect gender roles and gender identity?