If  the essence of fashion is at least partly an articulation of the times that we live in, then it is relatively unsurprising that more and more designers are playing with the traditional boundaries of gender. Same-sex marriage has become one of the defining issues of 2015, most prominently in America, but also here in Ireland. As well as this, the transgender community has gained an unprecedented visibility in the media, again foregrounding non-traditional gender identities and expressions, and designers seem to be picking up on this movement, using their collections to reflect this interrogation of gender.  JW Anderson has been using design to challenge binary notions of gender since his first collection, but when speaking to The Guardian about his recent work, he acknowledged that “A few years ago, maybe society wasn’t ready” for this. He focuses on “Gender confusion, because that’s an issue that’s around us, and I believe as a designer you have to reflect what’s going on. It’s fascinating to ask, how does this reflect into clothing? What does lace or silk mean, on a man or a woman?”

In a similar vein, Jonny Johansson, Acne Studios’ creative director, used his eleven year old son in his Fall/Winter womenswear campaign, sporting a pink coat and bold block heels. Talking to i-D magazine, he explained his choice: “I’ve seen this new generation’s attitude to fashion where the cut, the shape and the character of the garment is the crucial thing, rather than seeking approval from society or to follow set norms”, and for him, his son embodied this generation. Gucci’s new creative director, Alessandro Michele’s first few shows have featured androgynous look.  Girls who looked like boys wore shirts, suit jackets and masculine-cut trousers, and boys who looked like girls wore pussycat bow blouses, lace tops and floral designs. While women wearing masculine clothing is hardly shocking to us, we still start a little at men in supposedly ‘feminine’ attire. If a house as traditional as Gucci is playing with gender in this way, could this herald a new, more fluid approach to gender in fashion, and a re-contextualisation of items traditionally assigned to one gender or another?

Irish model Ivan Fahy is playing an important role in this questioning of gender norms not only through fashion, but also through his work as an activist.  Ivan’s androgynous appearance is a challenge to some, and he finds that in the minds of many, makeup and heels are still only for women. Ivan describes how it is difficult being a person that challenges the status quo: “Especially in Ireland, I feel like I’m kind of on my own.” To him, this questioning of, and refusal to conform to prescriptive gender distinctions, has always been necessary. “I never questioned my gender, I questioned how society said I had to behave. So I didn’t understand why guys had to so strictly behave one way and then the same with women. It’s just so sexist and restrictive, and so boring!” Ivan finds these gender restrictions particularly ingrained in Irish society. As a psychology graduate he has a particular understanding of the effects of prescriptive gender boundaries. He remembers how in primary school, although they were told that difference is ok, and everyone is special, the follow through to this was non-existent; every boy was still expected to play football and hurling, for example. He similarly describes his early, non-androgynous modelling work as constantly “Posing like you would in your communion photographs.” With this analogy Ivan epitomises the rather narrow, restrictive idea of Irish masculinity which remains pervasive, and which he is constantly pushing against; a reminder that for him, gender-blurring is about more than just fashion, but affects his whole life.

 

Unhappy and uninspired by this work, Ivan began to create his own portfolio, although getting started as an androgynous model in Ireland proved a challenge: “A lot of agencies, they’re afraid to work with you, because they are businesses. If they can’t see that they can make money from you immediately, or, with little effort, then they mightn’t take the risk.” He managed to get signed to an agency in Galway, although tells me that only one of the agency’s models wanted him on board. Ivan has not let people’s disapproval hold him back though, having since featured on the cover of GCN. He also created a stir by wearing heels to his graduation, yet still feels he would have like to have gone further: “I still kind of conformed, looking back now, I was still playing it a bit safe”. He is constantly seeking to push gender boundaries further, but admits that it’s a daunting task: “I am getting more and more brave. It’s so hard, because all it takes is one person on the street to give you a dirty look, and you just feel horrible. I suppose you just have to be extra brave. I’m very lucky to be so confident and, I suppose, stubborn maybe, because at least I get the job done then.” He cites the fear of regret as the driving force behind his courage. Clothing can an expression of who we are, what we want the world to know about us, but Ivan’s choices are considered controversial by many, whose disapproval seeks to restrict. The idea of dressing up is an apt example of this. Whereas children relish in dressing up, wearing exactly what they want to the point where you might see them blissfully trotting down the street in a superhero costume, we eventually lose this freedom within ourselves, gradually falling into line with what is considered normal.

 Ivan thinks society’s norms need to be expanded rather than removed completely as it’s a much harder task to remove norms completely, because they are so deeply ingrained in society: “I almost see norms as like living creatures, that are very smart. They erase every other option, so the gender norm is that everybody is born either male or female, and that everybody lives according to those gender expectations… And so if you’re lucky enough to be cisgender, you never have to question that, and that’s a privilege.” Every time we see a man wearing makeup, or a floral blouse, or a woman wearing a suit, a traditional gender norm is questioned. Ivan gives the example of his decision to wear heels for his graduation: “I went to the one piece of clothing that is still very female, the high heel. It’s controversial to be on the foot of a man. I think it goes back to feminism and gender: [as a man] I’m not supposed to sexualise myself, I’m supposed to sexualise other women.”

Despite the fashion industry’s increasing fluidity towards gender, Ivan points out that there is still a long way to go before this translates into the mainstream. He argues that there is still a definite disconnect “between the aspirations [of designers] and reality”. He points out that where women are a lot freer in their choice of clothing, happily wearing what is marketed as men’s clothing, men still await the same liberty. He does believe small changes are apparent though, with men’s grooming becoming mainstream, and points out that many of his male friends want him to take them shopping for women’s jeans. Although high fashion designs may not translate to the street immediately, their influence is ever more pervasive in our social media culture, with images from shows being viewed by millions across the web. This is key to ensuring that fashion’s current fascination with gender becomes more than a passing trend, and rather a sign of our society’s willingness to move in a positive direction on this issue. These small changes have the potential to become larger ones, and as fashion becomes ever more fluid in its treatment of gender, Ivan Fahy is certainly one of the pioneers of this new movement.

You can follow Ivan on Facebook http://facebook.com/IvanFahy and Twitter @IvanFahy

Photos by Lisa Griffin and Paul Cooley.