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Blue for boys and pink for girls. High heels and red lips for her, but short hair and a tie for him. Throughout fashion history, there has been a restricting way of thinking about fashion that sees dressing in a binary way.
It is this restricting way of thinking that has tried to hide in history some of those people that have stepped outside of the status quo. There are several books about the role of Marie Antoinette’s dress in fashion history. Her wigs, her exuberant dresses, her makeup and her shoes, but only a few about the legacy of Marsha P. Johnson, a queer activist whose dresses, makeup, shoes and words opened opportunities for future generations to see how fashion looks like outside of the binary.
The lack of visibility in transgender and queer fashion makes us wonder what role does fashion play in welcoming, transgender and queer youth, and if there are more opportunities in which the fashion industry and the way we relate to fashion can provide a more welcoming environment for queer, transgender non-binary and non-gender conforming individuals.
Trans rights through the lens of fashion
The clothes that we wear are an extension of our personality, they are our identity, one of the many ways in which we tell the world who we are. The combination of clothes, accessories, and shoes we own and the way we style them is particularly unique to each of us, because it is our background, our identity and our personality that makes us want or reject certain types of clothes.
Clothing is an affirmation of who we are and when we don’t feel comfortable in the clothes that we are wearing, we don’t feel comfortable with ourselves. Think about clothes that are too big, or too small for you. Think about clothes that are missing something. If the zipper is broken or if a button fell, we are not going to wear them or if the accident happened while we were wearing these clothes, then we will do something to try to cover these clothes, because we don’t feel comfortable with them. There is something off with them.
Something not so visually obvious happens when the clothes we are wearing don’t reflect our authentic selves, we don’t feel comfortable with them. We might be able to put them on because we want to blend in or because we are yet to find clothes that truly represent who we are.
Clothing can be an affirmation of people’s of gender identity.
Clothing keeps us warm, make us feel comfortable, look elegant, and it even gives us the opportunity to become mythological creatures in Halloween. Clothing can bring us to different dimensions in the spectrum of emotions and feelings, and we must not undermine its power and influence on how much it can boost or decrease our confidence.
Lia Hegarty, a girl from Durham shared her story in the news about a decade ago, saying how in her journey growing up as a trans girl, she would often look at her sisters’ dresses wondering why she couldn’t wear dresses, questioning the binary rhetoric implied in our clothing since we are very little. Lia wore pink dress shirts and princess dresses at home which made her feel very happy and welcomed, but when she started on kindergarten, the dysphoria began with depression and anger.
With the support of her parents and her social circle, Lia was then able to get gender-affirming care and wear clothes to express her true authentic self.
Across languages, cultures, demographics, ages and backgrounds, clothes are able to express our authentic self and see ourselves in a way that others may not. In Lia’s story, she found comfort in the princess dresses before she could express with words, what her body, her mind and her heart were asking. That is the unbelievably powerful force that fashion has.
Legal Battles and Fashion Freedom
The right to wear the clothes we want and that our authentic self asks us for is not an attainable right for every person. There are laws, rules and dress codes in schools, workplaces, and public spaces. Dress codes are important to maintain protocols, preserve discipline and create a sense of belonging and unanimity within the institution, but it is naive to believe that dress codes cannot evolve or adapt to the needs of the every individual.
Can we reimagine school uniforms and provide genderless shorts or sweatpants as an option so all kids can play rather than hyperfocusing on the feminine connotations of the skirt? Can we focus on ensuring kids are wearing clean and presentable school uniforms rather than punishing them for not fitting into a gendered box they are not meant to fit into?
At the end of the day, being able to present yourself with clean and proper clothes are more valuable habits for kids to learn as they’ll grow into applying for college, going to job interviews, dating people and connecting with others.
We cannot win these legal battles overnight or change the way public spaces and institutions operate. But this doesn’t mean we don’t have the right to create our own safe spaces to live with fashion freedom. These safe spaces can be the department store where you are trying on clothes of all kinds to see what is your body thinking and feeling when you are putting these clothes on. These safe spaces can be your house, if you live with people who support you in your fashion freedom journey and they’ll celebrate the clothes, shoes, and accessories you want to try on in your house. It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel safe with those clothes going out and you can’t go anywhere. Staying at your house and wearing clothes that bring you joy is an act of self-love and self-care that we could include in our lives more often.
In the stores, on the runways and in the streets, there are ways of thinking about fashion that are frivolous and are meant to make feel people like they don’t belong or like there is something wrong or off with who they are. But today and every day, we have the power of building our very own safe spaces and dress with clothes that make us feel fabulous, spectacular, and bring us joy. Labels are in the past, but a smile will always be in style.
