Dress For Success
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I’m looking at dresses
skirts
something for me
but it’s all too fem
I wonder
why is fem a bad thing
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there was a time when
nothing was too fem for a man to wear
all those portraits
of men in wild oceans
of lace
satin
brocaded jackets
did they dress like that
hanging around their homes
what did they wear
when they weren’t posing
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do I want this dress
to pose in
or
do I need something practical
utilitarian
genderless
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I’m looking at vintage photos
of men
going fishing
they’re wearing shirts & ties
shirts & ties to the beach
on picnics with the family
working on the roof
I can’t remember
the last time I wore
a shirt & tie
but I remember wearing them
owning them
I’ve never worn a dress or a skirt
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I don’t want to make a statement
but that is impossible
if I showed up
in acceptable formal
Henry VIII court wear
it would be a costume
how many times
would I have to dress that way
for it to be as ordinary
as a shirt & tie
would a dress on me
ever be as ordinary
as a shirt & tie
A few years ago Billy Porter showed up at the Academy Awards in an amazing, huge, black ruffled ballgown with a tuxedo jacket top. Beautifully tailored & shockingly fashion forward. It got him more press than anyone else at the Awards that year – what year was it? Who won that year? I can’t remember but I doubt if I’ll forget that dress or who wore it.
This was followed up by some minor male pop stars in various fashion magazine spreads, modelling dresses & androgynous clothing. Gimmick stuff supposedly to aid in the cause of degenderizing clothing. If you look back through the history of fashion there has always been a clear difference between what men wore & what women wore – at least those who could afford it & had social positions that demanded it. What the farmer’s wife & her husband wore were close to identical.
I know that when I grew up clothing was gender by colour & practicality. Boys never had lace trim on their sweaters; pink, blue etc. Even which side you buckled your belt was a gender indicator. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I found out women’s blouses had buttons on the left (or is the right), men’s shirts on the right.
Hair was another defining point – men/boys short – women long. When the hippie guys began growing out their hair, it was always straight down never teased into hair hopper balloons. I never knew a girl who got a brush cut for the summer. I never owned an ordinary shirt & tie.
TOpoet 