Women's Day, 46 years after being decreed by the UN, and in the midst of a pandemic in 2021, continues to put the debate on women's emancipation on the table. Free to choose, free to do and free to be.
Although the debate is the same, its nuances have changed. Today, more than ever, this date is an opportunity for us to design ourselves according to our will and defend our sacred right to choose.
We are not experts in gender studies, so we take this blog post to familiar territory: fashion.
Our intention is not to trivialize the struggles in any way, but on the contrary to give them a new look from the symbolic identity of fashion.
From control mechanism to symbol of freedom
Choosing clothes is an intimate and symbolic act of communication. Even on a subconscious level we make decisions about our image based on how we are perceived by others: fashion is a message.
The corset, with its limitation of movement, reflected the purchasing power of its partners as they could afford to have an ornamental wife. Coco Chanel brought us a new way of dressing, with a looser silhouette, thinking about women and giving a reference to the flapper style.
With bob hair, smoking, driving and dancing we began to appropriate our image and dress for ourselves.
Fashion and rights
With the colors white, green and violet the women of the suffrage movement carried their fight with them. Having the right to vote, although it seems everyday to us today, at the time required a long list of women to make themselves felt and unite around a common goal.
Once again fashion was a channel to unite and tell our story. Once again we made the image a symbol: we dressed strong.
Bikini, miniskirt and release
In the 1940s, Louis Reard, a French engineer, found the solution to a practical problem for women: being able to bathe comfortably on the beach. Less fabric and more controversy for a society accustomed to making women's clothing a matter regulated by men.
The 60s gave us, among other things, the birth control pill, burning bras and the miniskirt. It took cutting just 20 cm to turn a skirt into a debate, and from the debate an opportunity to say again that our body and image belong to us.
Present and future
Today, in a heterogeneous way, we have taken control of the image we project. We work with pants and decide the length of our skirts thanks to brave and anonymous women who have defended our right to dress however we want.
And what will the future be like? Well, as we decide. The only thing certain is that it will be diverse, it will be inclusive and its scope will be universal.
