8 Times Fashion Gave No Fucks About Gender Norms This Year
Androgyny thrived in 2014.
Historically, fashion has been an avenue for exploring different gender presentations. Sartorial forces have swept women into pants the same way they brought openly gay men to reality television and models identifying as transgender to glossy magazines. While these kinds of transitions move slower than they should—and while there are still powerful pockets of intolerance within the industry—fashion holds the power to reshape societal norms and conceptions of beauty. 2014 was a banner year for the industry embracing non-traditional gender presentations, from Young Thug in a dress to buzzy young labels not caring who wears their clothes, these moments are definitely worth celebrating. Below, you'll find eight of our favorites.
Early in the year, Young Thug Instagrammed a photo of himself in a leopard peplum minidress. The photo reopened a conversation about rappers in women's clothing that had laid dormant after Dipset's heyday. Like Cam'ron's purples and pinks, Thugger's style doesn't appear say much about his lifestyle or his sexuality—only about his level of swag. As we wrote back in February: "Wearing women's clothing does not make Thug gay, though it has caused his sexuality to be debated on hip-hop message boards. But it's easy to imagine Thug welcoming debate about his clothes and gender—he's a provocateur, in a long line of rock and rap stars before him who have pushed gender lines."
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Model Andreja Pejic's androgynous looks and statuesque beauty have kept her in high demand for years now, but it was only in 2014 that Pejic came out to People about her male-to-female sexual reassignment surgery earlier this year. Pejic tells the mag, "What's in between anyone's legs is not who they are." Amen. If there were consequences to Pejic sharing her story, we didn't hear them. Beautifully, no one seemed to care.