Boyfriend (fashion)

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In fashion design, primarily in ready-to-wear lines, boyfriend is any style of women's clothing that was modified from a corresponding men's garment. Examples include boyfriend jackets, boyfriend jeans, and boyfriend blazers, which are often more unisex or looser in appearance and fit most women. These include jackets or trousers, though these are still designed for the female form.

Background of women in menswear[]

In the 19th century, women in Western society mostly wore dresses, skirts, and corsets.[citation needed] Amelia Bloomer, a woman's rights activist in the 1850s, was one of the first to change the stereotype when she introduced the bloomer.[citation needed] Later, in the 1920s, the fashion legend Coco Chanel started a menswear line.[citation needed] Other popular fashion icons such as Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich had menswear style fashion, which made this style even more popular in the 1930s.[citation needed] During the war when women were free to wear more masculine clothes, however, when the war ended in the 1950s, they returned to more feminine forms of dressing.[citation needed] It was not until the 1960s and early 70s that menswear-inspired fashion was no longer considered a rebellious political statement.[citation needed] In the 1950s Marilyn Monroe wore boyfriend jeans, which started the popularity of the clothing item.[1]

Women in menswear today[]

The origin of boyfriend fashion is borrowing and wearing a boyfriend's clothes.[citation needed] The trend expanded when many brands such as Gap, Forever 21, H&M, and Urban Outfitters began to create boyfriend fashion products or men's-inspired fashion.[2]

Boyfriend blazer[]

The boyfriend blazer has been featured in many of the spring 2010 walks such as Charlotte Ronson, Cynthia Rowley, and Elie Tahari, and the trend continued into 2011.[citation needed] The boyfriend trend is all about wearing clothes that look a size too big for the wearer.[citation needed] It is recommended to go up only one size.[citation needed] It balances it out while implying that the sleeves would be too long for the wearer's arms. The boyfriend blazer comes in many shades, ranging from classic hues of black and gray to whites, pinks, and neon. They can be worn with a cocktail dress, a skirt and blouse, or even leggings.[3]

Boyfriend jeans[]

From Marilyn Monroe to Kim Kardashian, the boyfriend jeans have been popular for many years.[citation needed] The boyfriend jean is loose-fitting, slouchy, and relaxed-looking pants that are heavily distressed. Some celebrities also wear boyfriend jeans from Kendall Jenner to Reese Witherspoon to Rihanna.[citation needed] The boyfriend jean has been reinvented to be many fits, from more baggy and authentic, to a tighter more dapper version.[4]

Future of fashion[]

The "borrowed from the boys" look is nothing new however, the trend is currently in fashion, and will continue to go in and out of fashion.[citation needed] However, this style trend shows young girls and women that they can wear whatever they want.[citation needed] Fashion icon Jaden Smith wore a dress and a skirt in a Vogue, and people thought it was bold and revolutionary.[2] Alicia Hardesty, a project runway competitor, has a line of clothing is called original tomboy, and is for both women and men interchangeably. She likes to describe her work as androgynistic,[citation needed] meaning that there is characteristics of both masculine and feminine. She believes that this is the future for fashion, and anybody should be able to wear these clothes. One day Hardesty hopes to see a store with no women's section or men's section, but clothes everyone can wear just in different sizes.[5]

References[]

  1. ^ Moffat, Laura. “History of Women Wearing Men’s Clothing.” Kirrin Finch. Accessed September 11, 2017. http://kirrinfinch.com/blog/history-of-women-in-menswear.
  2. ^ a b Irwin, Emma. “How Menswear For Women Is Shaping The Future Of Fashion.” Odyssey, August 2, 2017. https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-the-women-in-menswear-trend-is-important
  3. ^ "Boyfriend blazer fashion trend: how to wear it - Fashionising.com".
  4. ^ "What are Boyfriend Jeans?". CURRENT/ELLIOTT.
  5. ^ Cope, Jon Lee. “Masculine, Feminine.” Louisville Magazine 65, no. 3 (March 2014): 100–102.
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