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This week, all three of our participants were asked the same question after joining in the Streetwear Androgyny challenge: How does women’s fashion or the idea of androgynous clothing inform what you wear? Where do you see yourself on that spectrum? What about this challenge was fun and interesting for you? The bar keeps on going up.
FutureSailors
Original WAYWT post here
What this looks like: The Hunger
“So what kind of place is this, again?”
It’s spring, and it’s warm enough out - even at night - that you don’t need a jacket. You follow him down the block with a proverbial spring in your step - the weather’s changing, it’s a new year, and you haven’t gone out in forever.
“You’ll like it,” says your friend. “Kinda new, kinda upscale, in that not-really-trying sort of way.”
“Whatever,” you say, As long as there’s ladies!” You’re looking forward to letting off some steam - if only your friend didn’t insist on looking like such a weirdo. You eye his pants. And heels. And skirt. Is that a skirt?
“Dude, stop talking about the ladies, okay? We’re just here to have a good time.”
“Man, people are gonna think we’re a couple of freaks with you dressed like that. Can’t you look normal?”
“Can’t you stop worrying about other people for once? Man, just be yourself, okay?”
“It’s just too weird, dude. We’ll never have any luck with the ladies.”
“Why does it always have to be about girls with you?”
“Why does it always have to be about looking like some kind of rock-star space vampire with you?”
You stop. He looks at you. You blink.
“Oh,” you say.
The Goods:
Assorted collection of layered top that I can’t really differentiate: Rick Owens, Damir Doma, Homemade
Pants: Helmut Lang
Shoes: Valentino
Most of the time when I look at women’s fashion, it’s to see how they handle the female form. Is it sexy or precious or masculine? I’m generally not looking for ideas on how to dress myself. Occasionally there will be something more utilitarian in that it’s just easy to wear, like a jumpsuit, which won’t necessarily be in the menswear collections, and I’ll think, “yeah, that would be convenient”. Convenience is why the majority of what’s in my closet is what you’d call “traditionally masculine”. Suits, blazers, trousers, some military re-appropriations; I like the idea of a uniform wardrobe where I could put together a coherent outfit with my eyes closed. I can grab a black suit and I’m ready to go. Not particularly androgynous/effeminate if we’re gender-bending tropes from the closets of the opposite sex (YSL’s le smoking, Rick’s medges, etc).
We can also look at the androgyny spectrum as being more sex-specific/unisex. Helmut Lang’s FW1999 collection is one of my favorites and it does this perfectly. It’s 15 years old and still looks modern because a lot of it is so sexless—it’s just awesome clothes. There’s the traditional gender specific pieces like suits, dresses and skirts in there, but he also has jumpsuits and both genders in the exact same outfits, and they look cool and comfortable. There’s embellishment, but it’s simple enough for either sex. To me, that is androgynous. That’s also why I’m drawn to Helmut or Raf or Jil. You can look nice without having to fuss over making an outfit, you just put on the clothes. That easiness is cool.
The challenge presented a fun opportunity to try to put together an outfit that would be completely unisex and not overly finicky. I mean it’s basically just a big sweater over a big shirt over some pants. The bottoms might be pushing it for some of the fellas, but they could be switched for regular trousers without loosing much of the effect. I’d like to think it ended up being something that’s easy to wear for either sex without being too “**********-y”.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lorcan7
Original WAYWT post here
What this looks like: “Where shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain?”
“I can’t believe you like those movies.” You’re sitting sit in your friend’s overgrown backyard, watching him tend his garden. Tiny indigo finches flit about, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Five large cats lie in the sun, watching the birds with half-awake interest.
“Why?” says your friend, “They’re fun.”
“Fun? Come on, it’s like two hours of cliche. Forbidden attraction? The mysterious, slightly-dangerous love interest? ‘Stay away from me, I’m dangerous?’”
“That’s the point, right? It’s all so familiar that you barely have to pay attention. Was there a point to this visit? My babies need some trimming.”
“You have got to stop calling them that. And yes, that’s exactly what I’m here to talk about. Those weird, blue plants.” You sneeze. “And all these cats, man. I hate cats.”
“Indigofera tinctoria, boss. True indigo, the purest of the pure.”
“This has gone on long enough. It was one thing when it was just a couple pots, a little bit of weekend experimentation. Look at you now. Indigo shirt, indigo shawl, indigo pants and shoes, a cute little indigo house with a cute little indigo welcome mat, a well-kept garden full of indigo. Dude, we’re all worried - are you dealing?”
He looks up at you. His eyes are a uniform indigo blue. You sneeze again.
“I’m not dealing anything. I’m just a witch, now, is all.”
The Goods:
Shawl, Shirt: Engineered Garments
Jeans: Uniqlo
Shoes: Maison martin Margiela
I don’t really follow women’s fashion that closely, but since I’ve been on SF I’ve taken a bit of an interest, mainly thanks to the ‘How would you like a girl to dress?’ thread. While there is a danger with this subject that things can lapse into a worryingly proscriptive or dictatorial direction (“I don’t think women should wear X” or “I prefer my woman to be dressed in Y style/manner”), mostly its fun to appreciate awesome clothes and women with great style. Quite a few of the outfits in the thread do also lean towards the androgynous. I’m pretty sure on at least one occasion someone has mistakenly posted a picture of an androgynous looking man in there too. In any case, my fit for the androgyny challenge was somewhat inspired by this thread.
For the challenge it was interesting for me to adjust how I normally wear things in small ways to try and make the overall fit slightly more ambiguous and feminine: undoing an extra button on the shawl to make the neck wider and try and drape it off one shoulder more, roll the shirt sleeves to hit mid forearm and look a little ¾ length, etc. The overall silhouette - loose unstructured top, and a slim, fitted bottom-half - is something I rather like, and want to experiment with more in the future.
Some of you have probably noticed I quite like Engineered Garments. And while there are many reasons for this, one of them is that they do make some items that maybe fall outside the norm for men’s clothing: the shawls that can double up as wrap skirts, or the long shirts that end mid-thigh, as well as some of the wild prints. These sorts of pieces can feel quite fun and creative to wear. It’s definitely a sense of fun in their clothing that draws me to EG. 1960s and ‘70s style (and music and film) is also definitely something I’m interested in. And one look at Bowie or Hendrix will tell you that androgyny for men was pretty big then. If there is an element of my personal style informed by androgyny (longer hair for instance) it probably comes from being inspired by that period.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Snowmanxl
Original WAYWT post here
What this looks like: “I need a cold drink of ice water.”
“Stop smiling, will you? Every time we come, you have that insane grin on your face. What are you so happy about?”
Your childhood friend ignores your tone. “I just really love aquariums, okay?”
“Man, what are you, eleven?”
“Who doesn’t like aquariums?”
“Point taken. Still, I don’t see why we have to come every weekend.”
“What if the penguins get lonely?”
“Lonely without you around to grin at them?”
“Yeah!” He tosses a compressed pellet of “penguin food” (25 cents at the dispenser next to the habitat) into the water, and a penguin glares up at him and ignores it. His smile grows.
You shake your head. “You’ve been trying to get them to eat that stuff for years, now. Maybe they just don’t like it.”
“You don’t think they - hold on, look at that! I think that they’re…they’re telling us something!”
Black and white bodies swirl through the water beneath you. The penguins are organizing, lining themselves up in the habitat. The aquarium grows silent. You look down, and gaze in wonder at the adorable beaks, all staring back at you, dozens of bodies forming the living words:
“FISH, ASSHOLE”
The Goods:
Pants: Dries Van Noten
Boots: Kris Van Assche
Thank you for putting this challenge together, Brad! I enjoyed seeing everyone push their boundaries in terms of silhouettes. Others only had to tweak something here and there to come up with a creative solution!
Celine/phoebe philo is one of my favourites in womenswear. She always seems to appropriate traditional menswear and improve on it .The sharp tailoring mixed with free-flowing fabrics is an interesting mix. I would compare my take on this challenge to a modern day minstrel show; dudes dressing up as women who dress like dudes.
Womenswear has taught me a lot about silhouettes and proportion but more importantly how to manipulate them. For example, when I look at how a pant falls or breaks at a women's ankle (in heels), I feel the best way to emulate that is through a loose fitting pant with an elastic hem. The way the elastic ankle/hem interacts with the right shoe/boot can really add some height.
High rise pants combined with a tucked shirt also elongate my proportions. Add in a cropped/boxy jacket and you get a visual break of the waistline which is important when playing with the silhouette. (Hope these recommendations didn't sound too Mr. Porter-esque. redface.gif )
To me, the key to dressing androgynously-well is to look cool as ****. I'm literally wearing women's pants but they're so cool that no one will have their doubts. For this challenge I thought of the thread 'what I'd like a woman to wear' and styled myself hehe. I thought the shoes interacted well with the pants which is always important to me on an OCD level. The upper part of my outfit was simple and relaxed which played well with the volume in the thighs of the dries pant.
Mens clothing can become very static overtime, especially in north america, therefore taking cues from women’s clothing allow for some fun and conceptual interest !! I love browsing the women's section online or in department stores just to see what could work for me(n ) in terms of cut or material.
FutureSailors
Original WAYWT post here
What this looks like: The Hunger
“So what kind of place is this, again?”
It’s spring, and it’s warm enough out - even at night - that you don’t need a jacket. You follow him down the block with a proverbial spring in your step - the weather’s changing, it’s a new year, and you haven’t gone out in forever.
“You’ll like it,” says your friend. “Kinda new, kinda upscale, in that not-really-trying sort of way.”
“Whatever,” you say, As long as there’s ladies!” You’re looking forward to letting off some steam - if only your friend didn’t insist on looking like such a weirdo. You eye his pants. And heels. And skirt. Is that a skirt?
“Dude, stop talking about the ladies, okay? We’re just here to have a good time.”
“Man, people are gonna think we’re a couple of freaks with you dressed like that. Can’t you look normal?”
“Can’t you stop worrying about other people for once? Man, just be yourself, okay?”
“It’s just too weird, dude. We’ll never have any luck with the ladies.”
“Why does it always have to be about girls with you?”
“Why does it always have to be about looking like some kind of rock-star space vampire with you?”
You stop. He looks at you. You blink.
“Oh,” you say.
The Goods:
Assorted collection of layered top that I can’t really differentiate: Rick Owens, Damir Doma, Homemade
Pants: Helmut Lang
Shoes: Valentino
Most of the time when I look at women’s fashion, it’s to see how they handle the female form. Is it sexy or precious or masculine? I’m generally not looking for ideas on how to dress myself. Occasionally there will be something more utilitarian in that it’s just easy to wear, like a jumpsuit, which won’t necessarily be in the menswear collections, and I’ll think, “yeah, that would be convenient”. Convenience is why the majority of what’s in my closet is what you’d call “traditionally masculine”. Suits, blazers, trousers, some military re-appropriations; I like the idea of a uniform wardrobe where I could put together a coherent outfit with my eyes closed. I can grab a black suit and I’m ready to go. Not particularly androgynous/effeminate if we’re gender-bending tropes from the closets of the opposite sex (YSL’s le smoking, Rick’s medges, etc).
We can also look at the androgyny spectrum as being more sex-specific/unisex. Helmut Lang’s FW1999 collection is one of my favorites and it does this perfectly. It’s 15 years old and still looks modern because a lot of it is so sexless—it’s just awesome clothes. There’s the traditional gender specific pieces like suits, dresses and skirts in there, but he also has jumpsuits and both genders in the exact same outfits, and they look cool and comfortable. There’s embellishment, but it’s simple enough for either sex. To me, that is androgynous. That’s also why I’m drawn to Helmut or Raf or Jil. You can look nice without having to fuss over making an outfit, you just put on the clothes. That easiness is cool.
The challenge presented a fun opportunity to try to put together an outfit that would be completely unisex and not overly finicky. I mean it’s basically just a big sweater over a big shirt over some pants. The bottoms might be pushing it for some of the fellas, but they could be switched for regular trousers without loosing much of the effect. I’d like to think it ended up being something that’s easy to wear for either sex without being too “**********-y”.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lorcan7
Original WAYWT post here
What this looks like: “Where shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain?”
“I can’t believe you like those movies.” You’re sitting sit in your friend’s overgrown backyard, watching him tend his garden. Tiny indigo finches flit about, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Five large cats lie in the sun, watching the birds with half-awake interest.
“Why?” says your friend, “They’re fun.”
“Fun? Come on, it’s like two hours of cliche. Forbidden attraction? The mysterious, slightly-dangerous love interest? ‘Stay away from me, I’m dangerous?’”
“That’s the point, right? It’s all so familiar that you barely have to pay attention. Was there a point to this visit? My babies need some trimming.”
“You have got to stop calling them that. And yes, that’s exactly what I’m here to talk about. Those weird, blue plants.” You sneeze. “And all these cats, man. I hate cats.”
“Indigofera tinctoria, boss. True indigo, the purest of the pure.”
“This has gone on long enough. It was one thing when it was just a couple pots, a little bit of weekend experimentation. Look at you now. Indigo shirt, indigo shawl, indigo pants and shoes, a cute little indigo house with a cute little indigo welcome mat, a well-kept garden full of indigo. Dude, we’re all worried - are you dealing?”
He looks up at you. His eyes are a uniform indigo blue. You sneeze again.
“I’m not dealing anything. I’m just a witch, now, is all.”
The Goods:
Shawl, Shirt: Engineered Garments
Jeans: Uniqlo
Shoes: Maison martin Margiela
I don’t really follow women’s fashion that closely, but since I’ve been on SF I’ve taken a bit of an interest, mainly thanks to the ‘How would you like a girl to dress?’ thread. While there is a danger with this subject that things can lapse into a worryingly proscriptive or dictatorial direction (“I don’t think women should wear X” or “I prefer my woman to be dressed in Y style/manner”), mostly its fun to appreciate awesome clothes and women with great style. Quite a few of the outfits in the thread do also lean towards the androgynous. I’m pretty sure on at least one occasion someone has mistakenly posted a picture of an androgynous looking man in there too. In any case, my fit for the androgyny challenge was somewhat inspired by this thread.
For the challenge it was interesting for me to adjust how I normally wear things in small ways to try and make the overall fit slightly more ambiguous and feminine: undoing an extra button on the shawl to make the neck wider and try and drape it off one shoulder more, roll the shirt sleeves to hit mid forearm and look a little ¾ length, etc. The overall silhouette - loose unstructured top, and a slim, fitted bottom-half - is something I rather like, and want to experiment with more in the future.
Some of you have probably noticed I quite like Engineered Garments. And while there are many reasons for this, one of them is that they do make some items that maybe fall outside the norm for men’s clothing: the shawls that can double up as wrap skirts, or the long shirts that end mid-thigh, as well as some of the wild prints. These sorts of pieces can feel quite fun and creative to wear. It’s definitely a sense of fun in their clothing that draws me to EG. 1960s and ‘70s style (and music and film) is also definitely something I’m interested in. And one look at Bowie or Hendrix will tell you that androgyny for men was pretty big then. If there is an element of my personal style informed by androgyny (longer hair for instance) it probably comes from being inspired by that period.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Snowmanxl
Original WAYWT post here
What this looks like: “I need a cold drink of ice water.”
“Stop smiling, will you? Every time we come, you have that insane grin on your face. What are you so happy about?”
Your childhood friend ignores your tone. “I just really love aquariums, okay?”
“Man, what are you, eleven?”
“Who doesn’t like aquariums?”
“Point taken. Still, I don’t see why we have to come every weekend.”
“What if the penguins get lonely?”
“Lonely without you around to grin at them?”
“Yeah!” He tosses a compressed pellet of “penguin food” (25 cents at the dispenser next to the habitat) into the water, and a penguin glares up at him and ignores it. His smile grows.
You shake your head. “You’ve been trying to get them to eat that stuff for years, now. Maybe they just don’t like it.”
“You don’t think they - hold on, look at that! I think that they’re…they’re telling us something!”
Black and white bodies swirl through the water beneath you. The penguins are organizing, lining themselves up in the habitat. The aquarium grows silent. You look down, and gaze in wonder at the adorable beaks, all staring back at you, dozens of bodies forming the living words:
“FISH, ASSHOLE”
The Goods:
Pants: Dries Van Noten
Boots: Kris Van Assche
Thank you for putting this challenge together, Brad! I enjoyed seeing everyone push their boundaries in terms of silhouettes. Others only had to tweak something here and there to come up with a creative solution!
Celine/phoebe philo is one of my favourites in womenswear. She always seems to appropriate traditional menswear and improve on it .The sharp tailoring mixed with free-flowing fabrics is an interesting mix. I would compare my take on this challenge to a modern day minstrel show; dudes dressing up as women who dress like dudes.
Womenswear has taught me a lot about silhouettes and proportion but more importantly how to manipulate them. For example, when I look at how a pant falls or breaks at a women's ankle (in heels), I feel the best way to emulate that is through a loose fitting pant with an elastic hem. The way the elastic ankle/hem interacts with the right shoe/boot can really add some height.
High rise pants combined with a tucked shirt also elongate my proportions. Add in a cropped/boxy jacket and you get a visual break of the waistline which is important when playing with the silhouette. (Hope these recommendations didn't sound too Mr. Porter-esque. redface.gif )
To me, the key to dressing androgynously-well is to look cool as ****. I'm literally wearing women's pants but they're so cool that no one will have their doubts. For this challenge I thought of the thread 'what I'd like a woman to wear' and styled myself hehe. I thought the shoes interacted well with the pants which is always important to me on an OCD level. The upper part of my outfit was simple and relaxed which played well with the volume in the thighs of the dries pant.
Mens clothing can become very static overtime, especially in north america, therefore taking cues from women’s clothing allow for some fun and conceptual interest !! I love browsing the women's section online or in department stores just to see what could work for me(n ) in terms of cut or material.