(no subject)

[the_fantastic_ms_fox]

I want to learn more about sewing. I am especially interested in the idea of creating gender-variant clothes. When men wear dresses and when women wear suits (whether they were born to that sex or not, as I am finding out from personal experience) they are often stuck with the choice of having something that's either ill-fitting or padding and tightening their body to fit. What about making dresses that are made to fit the male body and work with its shape? What about suits that are made to fit on, and work for, women? No style changes. No shoulder pads and giant buttons on women's suits. No... well there aren't really dresses for men (at least not that I'm aware of) so I'm not sure what to put here.

This has applications for transsexual gender-normative people as well. And cissexed/cisgender people whose bodies don't exactly fit the mold (whaddya mean you have AA breasts? whaddya mean you're 5'5"?).

Dose anyone know of any kind of gender-variant fashion archive? Haircuts would be good too.

Comments

[inzpyrd.livejournal.com]

Funny how you talk about this. I've also noticed the same thing of what you said - there is no real in-between right now. So I'm in the process of designing clothes that could be worn (and look naturally good) on any sex. I also bought a sewing machine to help me along and am slowly learning how to sew (though that's on hiatus as I'm writing papers and studying for finals).

[inzpyrd.livejournal.com]

(Bah. I can't edit my comment.)

However, I don't know of any gender-variant fashion archives. Though, I'm sure there is something as such an idea isn't new.

[plaidalicious.livejournal.com]

I actually really liked the dresses that the creators of South Park wore to the Oscars in a send-up of Jennifer Lopez' navel-baring gown a few years back. They looked good in them.

Also: the utili-kilt is getting more and more popular as time goes by. This makes me happy. Men's legs are just as attractive as women's, why not show them off?

Togas and robes from the Roman era and tunic-hose pairings from the 1400's are historical examples of men in dresses designed to show off their frames better.The tunic-tights pairing has been tried by several sci-fi shows (Star Trek Next Generation dress uniforms come instantly to mind).

A lot of ladies' suits are Very Feminine lately.There was a series of ads a few years back from some feminine-hygiene company featuring power-suit wearing women and there was no waaay a boy would have fit properly into those suits. Also, check out Dior for early women's suit designs. I am growing to worship what Dior did in the fifties. For examples http://www.topfoto.co.uk/gallery/Dior/default.htm. It's too bad he didn't do more for men.

[bloodykitty.livejournal.com]

i am also learning to sew because i'm tired of ill-fitting clothes. so far i don't know anything about how to do it. i think i'm going to take classes.

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

Very few people do have off-the-shelf bodies.