Monday 23 May 2016

XPress yourself!

Millie has always enjoyed skating, shes not really down with manuals and tricks, she just loves cruising! And she's good... And fast!

She loves the skater look and quite often can be found in her over sized vintage khaki green army shirt and check shirt dress from Urban Outfitters. And has a look reminiscent of skaters such as Jay Adams from the 70's.

But it got me thinking about how she can be perceived sometimes with her peer's. Even though I have offered to stick to the younger 11 year old uniform of cute dresses, Millie just doesn't want to dress like that! 

But she does loves skinny jeans and crop tops, and her Nike sneakers are her one true love! Which is the uniform for most teenagers girl's however.

But Millie somehow likes to do something different, maybe a sign of wanting to be notice for the right or indeed the "wrong" reasons. But ultimately I think she is finding what she feel's comfy in, I don't hold her back and hope she doesn't feel restricted in her quest to find herself!


Then comes in to play the trend of gender fluidity for the future generations, in which Millie even at 11 is seemingly mastering! The highstreet has even jumped on to this trend in a hope to stay current.

Zara launched a gender neutral line offering both men and women the exact same pieces. But in my eyes the collection could be found in most highstreet stores for men and women anyway; basic tees, hoodies and jeans!

However as much as this might be a very timid and nervous offering it is still an offering and it invites the idea of gender fluidity to the highstreet.

My opinion is if they really wanted to express the fluidity of gender shouldn't the collection feature more female pieces, maybe a skirt for both men and women to really push the boundaries? 

We are not talking about transvestites, there are both straight and gay fashionistas exploring the creative possibilities without social restrictions.

Along with the Advertising Standards Authority announcing a bid to look at gender stereotypes in adverts, could this be the boundaries of male and female fashion breaking down? We all remember when Harry Styles wore that Gucci floral suit...

Selfridges are always at the forefront of pushing the underground to highstreet, championing and giving a platform to alot of young new designers. Some of my friends couldn't have done what they did without this acceptance from Selfridges. 

This free open mind to fashion has seen them offer the concept of ''Agender'', with shop windows having no mannequins in the displays. Quoting:

"Not a mannequin in sight, our challenge with Agender was to create windows without using any gender forms. The result is something entirely abstract, allowing us to really focus on the detail of the products. We want everyone to walk past the windows and be attracted to the items on display, completely unrestricted by traditional gender ideas." 


What is also encouraging for the future is that the more ''manly'' of men having adopted a more feminine style in the past such as David Beckham wearing diamond earring in both ears and the cast of TOWIE and various boybands wearing very low cut tshirts to see their muscle cleavage.



But why are we trained to think that pieces like skirts are for women only, I mean its only a slight change in the pattern cutting process. Young stars like Jaden Smith are leading the way for gender and fashion and still looking ''acceptable'' - whatever that is!
Oh and guess what he has a girlfriend too, even though he wears a skirt!
So what will the future hold for Millie and her peers? It's an exciting time in both social and fashion trends! And yes my utopia in my mind for people to be accepted as they are, whatever they look like and whatever they fancy wearing might not be now, but with gender neutral acceptance emerging form the younger generation, this dream of mine might be the future!  

Childrenswear highstreet designers will hopefully understand that girls do not just ''have'' to dress in a uniform of a pink tshirt with a "perfect princess'' logo across the front, tutu and sequin ballet pumps.  

However if girls want to dress like that then thats their choice... And thats the key word here - CHOICE for evryone!

3 comments:

  1. Hi Clydie,

    I am a Masters student at Cass Business School. My group and I are looking for online survey participants who have daughters aged 3-12 years and shop online for their clothing.
    You seem to be the perfect fit for our research criteria, could you please kindly undertake the following survey?
    https://cityunilondon.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4I8xXNFxciMuqnX

    This survey is designed keeping in mind your paucity of time, it won't take more than 5 minutes.
    Please do fill it and we would really appreciate it if you could also send this to some friends of yours who fit the criteria.

    ling.lin@cass.city.ac.uk
    Please do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions. Thank you very much! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fantastic post, very informative. I wonder why the other specialists of this sector do not notice this. You must continue your writing. I'm confident, you have a great readers' base already! reviewworldzap

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Yes I'm hoping that it will become the norm. It does start from parenting I believe. And I'm hopeful my generation will teach the next generation this acceptance. Some labels are scared to alienate their customer ie profits. But if demand is there they might listen? Yes I need to write more. X

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