The Postmodern Gender Carnival

Abstract

One of the features of fashion in the postmodern era has been the increasing prevalence of gender border crossings, where elements of male and female dress are mixed together in apparently arbitrary ensembles irrespective of the “sex” of the wearer. This has been exemplified by the fashion spreads in i-D magazine and The Face, for instance, where both male and female models sport outfits combining a mélange of gender signifiers, such as bomber jackets teamed with tutus, and pink sleeveless tops juxtaposed with cycling shorts and Doc Martens boots. Likewise, in haute couture, designers such as Jean-Paul Gaultier have freely mixed gender signifiers, presenting outfits for men employing sensuous fabrics and colors normally associated with female dress, such as pink satin and gold lamé accompanied by “feminine” accoutrements such as handbags, gloves, and frills, on the one hand, and “masculine” style garments such as sailor suits for women, on the other. Other fashion designers such as Gianni Versace, Issey Miyake, Katherine Hamnett, Rei Kawakubo, and Calvin Klein have created androgynous style fashions where there is no longer a clear differentiation between male and female garments.’ Beauty products such as perfume are now also being marketed for men and women without a clear differentiation between them, for instance, Calvin Klein’s fragrance One for him and her. The great popularity of “gender-bending” celebrities suchKeywordsGender IdentityGender InequalityGender DistinctionSexual LiberationGender BoundaryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.