By: Jordan Taylor
We’ve already discussed how to stay cool, confident and feel your sexiest as the weather warms, but there’s always more to be said about the way we choose to style ourselves. Personal style is the epitome of our self expression, and how we choose to dress can be a reflection of who we are as much as a reflection of who we want to be. Those who take pride in their style use it as a tool to express pride in themselves: we wear what makes us feel our best, and we feel our best when we’re being true to ourselves.
In recent years, clothing has become less gender-specific than in decades past. Of course, clothing was never actually gender specific, but long lasting social norms and societal standards have pigeonholed dresses and suits. Today, women, men and everyone in between or outside of that binary have more freedom to express themselves through style, but it has been a hard fought battle.
This June is the 25th anniversary of the United States’ pride celebration, and it’s only right to pay tribute to the trailblazing style icons that have paved the way for the all-gendered fashion we ubiquitously have available today. June was chosen for Pride Month to pay homage to the victims of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, when Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn was aggressively and wrongfully raided by the NYPD. The fact that such atrocities are within living history only furthers the importance of modern day gender acceptance, and affirms that men wearing dresses and women with shaved heads are so very worth celebrating.
Pictured above is Marsha Johnson, a black transgender LGBTQ rights activist who, after the Stonewall Riots in the 70s, established, and mothered, the Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries (STAR) group committed to helping unhoused trans youth in New York City’s lower Manhattan area.
When it comes to gender nonconforming fashion, there are so many icons who have continued to prove that all clothes are for all people. Consider Prince, David Bowie, Billie Eilish circa 2016-2021 or any of these looks from the Prada FW 2017 collection. Lest we forget Mark Whalberg and Kate Moss’s iconic Calvin Klein campaign, in which both models sport some tighty-whities sans tops. The days of pink hair bows and blue bowties are over, at least in the traditional ways that we know them to be worn.
If you’re living anywhere but under a rock, I’m sure this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Yet, we still see gendered clothing norms pervade the market from high fashion to fast fashion. So what does this mean for lingerie? Yup, you guessed it– that’s moving towards a more gender non-specific, all-body inclusive future as well. If it feels good, then it must be right!
When we think of lingerie, certain names tend to dominate our mental space. We think of the VS Angels, Fleur de Mal, Gilda & Pearl, and other historically hyper-feminine brands. While a lacy pink bra and barely there g-string will likely never go out of style, the demographic of people wearing them has drastically changed over the past few decades. As the breaking of gender norms becomes more and more socially acceptable, we arrive in a world where men wear g-strings and women wear boxers– and everyone looks, feels, and embodies their sexiest self. Brands like Cosabella and Cantiq feature lingerie styles that adapt to all forms of the human body, further exemplifying that lingerie is limitless, genderless, and timeless.
At Amour Caché, we talk a lot about womanhood and femininity, but that does not mean that our styles are limited to cidgender, heteronormative women. Our brand embodies self acceptance and comfortability in our skin, which means being who you truly are from your biological bones to the bones in your corsets. Our pocketed bras–like the Gin or the Cristal–can be used for prosthesis, in which the lace lining either side of the pocket can be stretched (within reason) to hold the prosthetics securely in place. The soft, elastic lace in our bras make them perfect for all chest sizes, and for the possibility of ever changing chest sizes.
If this subject matter doesn’t seem to particularly apply to you, remember that it does: our LGBTQIA+ siblings deserve the same comfort to express themselves as anybody else. Allyship is important, and remembering that some of the preconceptions that we hold as a society are truly outdated. When it comes to fashion, everyone is welcome. Take it from the Trans Emergency Fund’s current Executive Director, Chastity Bowick: “Back in my day, when I was transitioning, it was only ‘LGBT’, now it’s ‘LGBTQIA’! There’s always something new to educate yourself on. Be that person, and act like that [queer person] is your child.”
Click here to read Amour Caché’s full interview with Chastity Bowick.