Unlike in previous generations, men dressed in feminine garb aren’t intended as a gag, to shock, or to tantalize. Its newfound purpose is to be alluring and sexy.
It was on the magenta pink carpet of the 2019 “Camp” themed Met Gala when Harry Styles sported an iconic gender-fluid ensemble which consisted of a black, sheer lace bodice, leather heeled boots, mint green polished fingernails and a single pearl earring.
When asked about his fashion choices, Styles told Vogue UK, “I have always been keen to experiment with fashion and I am never scared to try something new.”
Fast forward to now, the former boy-band member turned soft rock singer is the first man to land a solo cover on Vogue Magazine. On the cover, Styles is sporting a custom-made Gucci periwinkle ball gown paired with a black tuxedo blazer.
Almost immediately, the groundbreaking magazine cover photo caused an uproar after the magazine debuted its December issue.
Candace Owens took to Twitter and issued a call for society to “bring back manly men.” Additionally, Ben Shapiro tweeted, “Anyone who pretends that it is not a referendum on masculinity for men to don floofy dresses is treating you as a full-on idiot.”
The “Fine Line” singer directly responded to Candace Owens’s tweet. “Bring back manly men,” he wrote alongside an Instagram photo of himself clothed in a faded cyan blue suit and white blouse to match while chowing down on a banana.
Harry Styles fans, celebrities, the LGBTQ+ community, millennials and generation Z alike also took to the singer’s defence in regards to Owens’s and Shapiro’s tweets.
A Gen Z member and ally of the gender fluidity movement, Alexandra Somers spoke about the singer’s influence, “Harry Styles wearing a dress not only shows his comfortability in his own skin but also gives others the freedom to dress how they want. Seeing someone in his position being himself, brings openness for all genders and acceptance.”
Emma Lord, a famous digital media editor and the author of Tweet Cute tweeted, “Anyone mad about Harry Styles in a dress is just mad that he can pull it off better than they can.”
Jessica Valenti, the co-founder of The Feministing Blog, also tweeted her opinion on the subject. “If conservatives are mad about Harry Styles to wait until they find out about the trend on TikTok where girls dress their boyfriends in maid outfits.”
Valenti’s tweet is in the response to the current TikTok trend of young men (of all sexual orientations) embracing the concept of gender-bending. Many male TikTok users have videos of themselves dressed in maid dresses, schoolgirl outfits and femboy (a cisgender individual that does not conform to the norms of masculinity) looks.
There are many fashion similarities between Styles and the young men on TikTok. Much like Styles’s designer dress and sheer bodice, the outfits on TikTok are empowering men to show their bodies like never before. Men dressing in feminine clothing is not only blurring the lines of the social construct of men’s fashion, it is also invoking excitement in both men and women alike.
Western Michigan grad student and a member of the LGBTQ+ community Ashlyn Sharpe commended the contemporary fashion trend, “I fully support breaking common gender roles and I think that doing so in his kind of position of influence is really important because of that representation. It’s everything when someone is growing up thinking they are different from everyone else, seeing someone like Harry Styles expressing himself and being who he wants to be. It sends a really good message.”
Styles has voiced his own thoughts on gender fluidity in fashion. “When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there are clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play,” he told Vogue.
To read the full Vogue article, the December issue starring Harry Styles (and the controversial dress) can be found at vogue.com.