Androgynous Fashion {Orginial Design}

June 17, 2018

I believe that open-mindedness is the way of the future. The only way that we, as a society, whether it’s here in the U.S or across the world, are going to change the course of history is to be willing to accept the differences in everyone.

With the uproar in androgynous fashion in the 20th and 21st century, I have come to realize that this new "trend" is now turning into the lifestyle of many people. But wait! What exactly is androgynous fashion? Apart from the desire to not be confined to one gender and having the freedom to be and wear whatever you’d like, androgynous fashion can be literally interpreted as the combination of "masculine" and "feminine" fashion and styles. Just take a look at David Bowie or Grace Jones. While these two people ruled the androgynous fashion scene back in the 20th century, in modern-day fashion, we have young Hollywood, influencers, and even your everyday people branching out to discover and expand the trend. And just like we want it to, it’s spreading quickly!

Back in April, I created a design that was inspired by androgynous fashion in the 1920s. Not only did the designer Gabrielle Chanel rule during that time as she slowly broke gender norms, but the mix of the masculine and feminine concepts were growing into something, mostly women at that time, wanted in on. The design I created was something that I had never done before. It usually is a bit difficult to stray away from my usual design style, but after intensive research on the common fabrications and the popular color stories and silhouettes of the time, I was more than ready to design a four-piece garment that encompassed androgyny.

Photographer: Katherine Angelique (@letmetakeyourpicture)

For the most part, with patterning and draping, I was able to create the peplum long-sleeved shirt, the flared organza shorts, and the leather corset with ease. However, the trouble came with the oversized hat. Since I have never created a wide brim hat before, I was doing everything I could to improvise and come up with one for the least amount of money. So, in order to make it, I used industrial felt, and cardboard. For my first attempted, I used strips of foam boards and hot glue that quickly turned out to be a disaster. So, even though it wasn’t what I was expecting to do, the cardboard seemed to work the best. If it weren’t for the DIYer in me, I think that I would have had to scrap the whole hat since I foolishly decided to wait until the night before to fix it. If I were to do it again, I would definitely read a book about hat making or watch hundreds of YouTube videos about it. Either way, I would for sure try again.

Photographer: Katherine Angelique (@letmetakeyourpicture)

To add, I have been practicing my sketching skills as much as I can and I’m happy to say, I’ve gotten a little better! Here is an original sketch of the androgynous design: