Social Design - Outfits, an Expression Experiment
December 2017 — Research and experiment regarding fashion and gender, Minor Critical Studies, Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam
Does fashion influence our sense of gender? ‘Outfits’ is an expression experiment. What happens when we’re pulled out of our comfort zone and look at ourselves from different perspectives? Does it affect our identity and sense of masculinity or femininity?
To get a grip on gender as a theme, I used fashion as a measuring tool. With the help of 8 people, 4 different outfits and an audience as source of input, I developed a method showing the fluidity and identification aspects of gender.
Putting these different people in various outfits had some very interesting results. Jolien felt most ‘feminine’ in a t-shirt and jeans, while Edwin felt comfortable and ‘masculine’ wearing a dress. Outfits shows that feminine and masculine feelings are completely subjective and not at all fixed. Gender seems to be more fluid and changes thanks to the clothes that we are wearing.
To get a grip on gender as a theme, I used fashion as a measuring tool. With the help of 8 people, 4 different outfits and an audience as source of input, I developed a method showing the fluidity and identification aspects of gender.
Putting these different people in various outfits had some very interesting results. Jolien felt most ‘feminine’ in a t-shirt and jeans, while Edwin felt comfortable and ‘masculine’ wearing a dress. Outfits shows that feminine and masculine feelings are completely subjective and not at all fixed. Gender seems to be more fluid and changes thanks to the clothes that we are wearing.
from left to right: Lieke, Edwin, Bas, Robbert, Isabel, Niek, Jolien, Diederick en Angela
from left to right: Lieke, Edwin, Bas, Robbert, Isabel, Niek, Jolien, Diederick en Angela
from left to right: Lieke, Edwin, Bas, Robbert, Isabel, Niek, Jolien, Diederick en Angela
from left to right: Lieke, Edwin, Bas, Robbert, Isabel, Niek, Jolien, Diederick en Angela
