Androgyny - Contemporary Trends

Contemporary Trends

Androgyny has been gaining more prominence in popular culture in the early 21st century. Both fashion industries and pop culture have accepted and even popularised the "androgynous" look, with several current pop stars being hailed as creative trendsetters.

The rise of the metrosexual in the first decade of the 2000s has also been described as a related phenomenon associated with this trend. Traditional gender stereotypes have been challenged and reset in recent years dating back to the 1960s, the hippie movement and flower power. Artists in film such as Leonardo DiCaprio sported the "skinny" look in the 1990s, a departure from traditional masculinity which resulted in a fad known as "Leo Mania." This trend came long after musical superstars such as David Bowie, Boy George, Prince, and Annie Lennox challenged the norms in the 1970s and had elaborate cross gender wardrobes by the 1980s. Musical stars such as Marilyn Manson and the band Placebo have used clothing and makeup to create an androgyny culture throughout the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s. Manson even appearing genderless in the album cover for Mechanical Animals, showing breasts and no reproductive organs.

One of the earliest celebrities to challenge gender stereotypes was Elvis Presley in the 1950s, whose wardrobe and use of makeup (particularly eye makeup) incited traditionalists to riot. Presley inspired extraordinary artists such as the Beatles (starting with long hair and progressing to full-fledged androgynous dress in life and on stage), the Rolling Stones (particularly Mick Jagger who strongly worked the androgyny angle) during the 1960s. Many other musicians challenged gender stereotypes such as, Jimi Hendrix who wore women's shirts, scarves, high-heeled boots, and was famously shy and soft-spoken in interviews. In the 1970s John Travolta made skintight male fashion disco de rigueur. Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant fashioned perhaps the most enduring image of modern androgyny. Plant combined a somewhat effeminate physical appearance with a high pitched, flamboyant vocal range coupled with a distinctly masculine sexuality. All these entertainers were known to have started trends of becoming increasingly conscious of their fashion and looks. With new fashion they inadvertently raised trends as celebrities in the limelight that males were now increasingly interested in traditional female interests like clothing, fashion accessories, hairstyles, manicures, spa treatments and so on. These trends have arguably gone on to reshape fashion, clothing houses, including Top Man, and designer labels. There has been an increase in sales in relevant "androgynous" merchandise.

While the 1990s unrolled and fashion developed an affinity for unisex clothes there was a rise of designers who favored that look, like Helmut Lang, Giorgio Armani and Pierre Cardin, the trends in fashion hit the public mainstream in the 2000s (decade) that featured men sporting different hair styles: longer hair, hairdyes, hair highlights. Men in catalogues started wearing jewellery, make up, visual kei, designer stubble. These styles have become a significant mainstream trend of the 21st century, both in the western world and in Asia. Japanese and Korean cultures have featured the androgynous look as a positive attribute in society, as depicted in both K-pop, J-pop, in Anime and Manga, as well as the fashion industry.