In February 2019, actor Billy Porter wore a “Cinderella tuxedo dress” to the Oscars. That was the first time I had ever seen a man wear a dress—a “typical” feminine style of clothing. Since then, I’ve seen celebrities breaking fashion gender roles on the red carpet as well as social feeds, in an expansion of menswear and normalization of femininity. 

Beginning in the 1910s, Coco Chanel gave women the option to wear pants and masculine silhouettes when she started designing clothes in 1913. According to TIME, Chanel believed people should express themselves based on how they feel instead of societal perceptions of masculinity and femininity. Another groundbreaking designer, Yves Saint Laurent, was the first to put women in suits in 1966 by creating a feminized tuxedo called Le Smoking. It wasn’t until the Peacock Revolution in the late 60s that gender-fluid fashion shifted from women to men. 

The Peacock Revolution was a counter-culture movement that began in London after the decriminalization of homosexuality in Britain. Some supporters of this revolution included The Beatles and David Bowie, all of whom began experimenting with femininity. 

The term androgynous, which comes from the Latin word ‘androgyne,’ means a mix of male and female physical characteristics. Androgynous fashion is meant to avoid creating a harsh distinction between the masculine and feminine. Now, gender-fluid styles are becoming mainstream.

Although the idea of androgyny is not a new concept, when major design houses make progressive shifts, such as Alessandro Michele’s Gucci combining its mens and womenswear collections in 2015, it lifts some stigma surrounding gender in the industry and introduces a way of non-binary gender expression in fashion. 

“Gucci really pushed towards androgynous trends: they were putting skirts on in the 90s and they were doing all that kind of stuff,” says Jacob Conlon, a junior at Marist College in New York. “Everything in fashion comes from the designer and then trickles down to the mass market.” 

Fashion icons such as David Bowie and Prince were celebrated by the queer community for wearing bright, flamboyant colors and dresses. Women such as Grace Jones and Janelle Monae are known for their menswear. When accepting an award at the 2012 BET’s, Monae says, “embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable.” Because of style pioneers from the LGBTQ community and pop culture, exploring gender through fashion is much more widely accepted today.   

Now, large e-commerce companies such as Amazon are exploring the idea of unisex clothing. In 2017, Amazon announced its partnership with London Fashion Week: 60 minute delivery of a unisex collection. Although brands such as Guess, Zara, and H&M have released unisex collections in the past, Amazon has the ability to normalize gender-neutral fashion and make it more widely accessible to a larger audience because of the inclusivity of all ages. 

Conlon has also seen changes surrounding rigid styles of menswear. He transferred into menswear freshman year, and now as a junior, almost all of his classes are focusing on menswear. “I originally came in and I wanted to do womenswear because everyone did womenswear, and then I switched into menswear and I noticed there weren't as many resources for me in my program,” Conlon says. “My professors used to tell me that menswear is restrictive because not all men wear everything and then I was like no, that’s not true.”

Although Conlon would not consider his style androgynous, he frequently buys from the women’s section and embraces both his feminine and masculine sides. Similar to Conlon, many Emerson students identify with gender fluidity and continue to express themselves through nonbinary fashion on campus.

Social media has created a space where individuals feel comfortable to experiment with societal designated gender styles without fear of judgment. Platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram show trends of women in traditional menswear styles such as baggy streetwear and oversized blazers. Men can also be seen in pleated skirts, sheer tops, corsets, and makeup. Today’s pop culture stars are following suit too. Billie Eilish is known to wear oversized streetwear-inspired outfits as a way to reject public sexualization and also express her personality, while Harry Styles expresses his feminine side by painting his nails and exploring womenswear.   

 Experiment with styles, and most importantly, don’t be afraid to step outside of your “assigned” gender roles. Gender fluidity is powerful, and it should make others uncomfortable.