I am sure you all are familiar with Andrej Pejić, the male model who more often than not models women's clothing.
I slowly came to the realization that Pejić is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of other girls like Tima Marso (above), who are modeling womenswear despite the fact that they are male. Check out Juan's New Male Fashion blog regularly and you will see a new male womenswear model featured on almost a weekly basis.
And the other shoe dropped recently: female models are now modeling menswear.
What’s going on?
The reason usually cited for males modeling womenswear is that fashion designers prefer female models who have thin boy-like figures. So some designers are just skipping the middle man (or should I say "middle woman") and are hiring thin boys to model their female offerings.
I guess that makes sense, but hiring a female model to model menswear needs some explanation. I assume fashion designers prefer their models to look like males when modeling menswear. That is not east to accomplish when your model is female.
Female-to-male crossdressing is seldom convincing because it's difficult to make a sow's ear out of a silk purse. On the other hand, thin boys can be made into pretty girls with makeup, hairstyling and body-shaping.
Something else must be going on.
Fashion designers may be trying to convince consumers that it is ok to wear womenswear or menswear whether you are a boy or a girl.
In truth, girls don't need much convincing --- they have been borrowing from the boys like forever. On the other hand, boys have just started borrowing from the girls and they need some encouragement.
If they are transwomen, they probably are crossdressing behind the scenes already. Now, the “Andrej Pejić phenomena” is giving them the green light to crossdress everywhere.
Mosey on over to http://imgur.com/r/crossdressing/ and you will be amazed by the number of young men experimenting with femulation. Some of them are already exploring the real world en femme, but most of the photos were shot indoors, not very far from the femulator’s closet. Perhaps encouraged by Miss Andrej and her sister male models, it won't be long before all these young femulators will be moseying to the malls wearing skirts and heels to shop in their favorite dress shops like Jos. A. Bank.
Anything can happen and probably will.
Andrey Gordychuk, male womenswear model.
Wearing Tibi.
Fashion designers, by default, are interested in progress and change. And it's not only the marketing involved, I think it's more: their own's visions. If this revolution starts with melting and mixing genders and clothes, well, it's a good thing! Pejic showed that a man can wear feminine clothes as well, being, in the same time, a model for both men and women. And of course, this is not resuming at catwalks but into the day-by-day life. The line can be crossed using small steps, but once crossed, a new fantastic univers of possibilities is revealing to the daring.
ReplyDeleteStana
ReplyDeleteI hope that you are correct in the assumption that the designers may be trying to convince men to wear women's clothing. That would be nice and I hope that it is at least a small end result of males modeling woman's clothing. I also like the concept that it may be a way for them to increase sales.
I think it may be a form of marketing against type. I am sure you remember the Joe Nameth 'pantyhose' commercial with the iconic tag line that if these pantyhose "can make my legs look this good, just think what they can do for yours." With male models there may be an undercurrent that if the clothes they are wearing make a man look so amazingly beautiful just think what these clothes will do for a woman.
Just random thoughts.
Pat
I'm glad to see more males are modeling female garb. My hope is that it becomes trendy! Hope changes everything.
ReplyDeleteI am not a male modeling female garb and never will be. I enjoy wearing women's female garb!
ReplyDeletePhoebe
The people on imgur identify as crossdressers, wearing women's clothes
ReplyDeleteThese people seem to mostly identify as men, wearing men's clothes, though not conventional ones: http://niceskirtbro.tumblr.com/
There seems to be a difference to me.
I care nothing about fashion models and most fashion designers because most of the stuff in the last 10 years looks like a college student on drugs designed it. Reminds me of the movie zoolander when mugatu is literally wearing a black trash bag for a shirt.
ReplyDeleteHowever, some of these male models as girls are absolutely stunning. Tima Marso is yet another lucky lucky boy
Here's another blog with a lot of males who model as females: http://jkontumblr.tumblr.com/
ReplyDelete