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Essay: Between Genders

by Lou Stoppard on 21 April 2016

This exhibition section of Mad About The Boy explored fashion's interest in the fluidity – both in terms of gender and sexuality – that can be enjoyed by youths.

This exhibition section of Mad About The Boy explored fashion's interest in the fluidity – both in terms of gender and sexuality – that can be enjoyed by youths.

Installation shot from Mad About The Boy

While typically times of transition and change are emotionally and physically distressing for the real-life teenager, the fashion industry has come to fetishise those who exist between states, and defy definitions and expectations. Numerous designers, including J.W. Anderson, have been celebrated for creating collections that explore distinct themes of gender fluidity, androgyny and genderless dressing.

Though it was perhaps Hedi Slimane who first redefined the fashionable male silhouette by recruiting extremely slim boys to model his skinny tailoring at Dior Homme from 2000 to 2007, recent seasons have offered more overt examples of androgyny: frills, fluff, jewels and sensual details usually restricted to womenswear now litter menswear catwalk shows. In editorials, such as the one by Brett Lloyd shown here, we see the androgynous quality of the boy’s youthful beauty heightened by feminine styling that deliberately suggests prettiness.

The sense of 'freedom' that surrounds youth – the boy’s ability to transform, mould, and adapt his identity, social group and sex – is seductive to an industry that prides itself on change.

Much acclaim has surrounded Alessandro Michele, who was appointed creative director of Gucci in January 2015, for his work in bringing genderless fashion into the mainstream luxury arena. In campaigns shot by Glen Luchford, the male depicted appears fragile and at points even childlike, such as in the image shown here in which his brogues are fastened by a female model. For journalist and critic Tim Blanks, it is not just Michele’s liberating attitude to sex and gender that is interesting, but his approach to age as well. 'Everybody talks about the gender-less nature of his clothes, but my more immediate response is that they are generation-less. It’s so subversive to relate – as he has – the freedom of youth to the liberation that comes with old age, and then to put them together. People say it’s a boy wearing a girl’s clothes, but imagine if it’s actually a boy wearing a granny’s clothes, and a granny wearing a boy’s clothes.'

Indeed, the sense of 'freedom' that surrounds youth – the boy’s ability to transform, mould, and adapt his identity, social group and sex – is seductive to an industry that prides itself on change.

Objects featured in this section of the Mad About The Boy exhibition:

  • J.W. Anderson, Autumn/Winter 2013. Courtesy of J. W. Anderson.
  • Francesco Bonami/Raf Simons/Maria Luisa Frisa, The Fourth Sex – Adolescent Extremes, 2015. Courtesy of London College of Fashion Library, University of the Arts London.
  • Brett Lloyd, Novembre Magazine, Spring/ Summer 2013. Courtesy of Brett Lloyd.
  • Glen Luchford, Gucci, Autumn/Winter 2015. Courtesy of Glen Luchford.
  • Glen Luchford, Gucci Cruise, 2016. Courtesy of Glen Luchford.
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