In the spring of this year, "Men in the man", how does the suit project the relationship between women and the world?

It is often said that no woman can refuse a man in a suit, but the new situation is: Chinese women may refuse a suit gentleman, but can not resist the suit itself.

Recently, in the just-concluded Taobao New Force Week, with the hit drama "Everything is good" frequently on the hot search, "Su Mingyu Suit" became the number one keyword in the "Star Search and Same" data. According to the latest data provided by Taobao for interface fashion, suits are becoming the preferred hot style for women in 2019.

As of January 27, 2019, the ratio of women buying suits on Taobao has been significantly higher than that of men. Combined with the data growth trend of the past few years, it is expected that 10 years later, women will have one suit per person, far more than men. In contrast, men's clothing, "Lace Man" and "Perspective Men" topped the search volume with a growth rate of 119% and 107%.

Taobao made a conclusion for this, called "women are getting tougher and men are getting more and more refined."

Freedom and freedom from "power dressing"

In fact, this judgment has a basic presupposition that "women should be soft and men should be rough."

It has indeed been a long time for a suit to record the process of gender opposition to the right to peace. If mainstream fashion is a study about women, then suits are about the relationship between women and the world: On the surface, when a woman puts on a suit, it means she decides to give up her femininity and move closer to male power.

Ask yourself, what do you think of when you see a suit in the closet? I will first think of the words "handsome", "professional", and "quiet". Every time I put on them, it seems that I really feel power. abundant. This kind of projection is not without trace in the history of European and American fashion. Since the 20th century, suits have been called "Power Suits", representing politics, struggle and resistance.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, most of the suits with sharp cuts and buckles appeared in the male riding and hunting costumes of the nobility. The prototype of the modern suit began to appear in the early 20th century, which greatly simulated the design of this male hunting suit.

Prior to the creation of the suit by Chanel, the Anglo-American women's suffrage in the 1910s prioritized the so-called Suit Took Form. A label called “New Women” began to occupy the historical arena in the early 20th century.

They are bolder, more active, and more straightforward than their mother's generation, and they are well rid of the principles of Edward VII and the Victorian era, abandoning the boring 19th century ideals and gender roles in clothing.

However, the uniforms worn by women's suffrage at the time did not help women to better integrate into the new way of life, and it was still looking ahead. The Bustle website has cited the Smithsonian Institute of American museum research institutes, saying that the Suit Took Form is the first set of women's suits in history, but the tight skirts on the ankles prevent women from walking too far. Therefore, it is only The shallow direct response of the complex skirts of the last century.

The Suit Took Form reflects the contradiction between the advancement of women's and women's consciousness. Until 1914, the Chanel suit appeared, and the design of this Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel was truly connected with women's liberation.

Grace Lees-Maffei, author of "The iconic design: 50 stories about 50 items," wrote: "The Chanel suit promotes women's participation in the 'man's world' and is therefore favored by urban workers and feminists. Although inspired by the men's wardrobe, it developed the new look of the suit in an acceptable way. Coco Chanel is not an uncomfortable activist, but a post-war woman who maintains the spirit of free discovery."

This view was dominated by the 1960s. For 50 years, most of the designers involved in women's emancipation in Western Europe were influenced by liberal feminism. Liberal feminism is based on the Enlightenment and emphasizes the equal idea that “women will be as successful as men if they have the same opportunities as men”. The influence of this kind of thinking on the dress is that the design of masculinity such as pants and suits is gradually becoming popular in the society. Women begin to pursue the same dress as men.

Yves Saint Laurent launched the "smoking suit" in 1966 - a tuxedo designed for women, but also pulled himself to the united front of feminist politics. The people who opposed it at the time said: "How dare women come up with such elegant male things and turn them into their own!" To denounce Yves Saint Laurent's disrespect and rebellion.

But recently, when I revisit this history, I think people may overestimate the importance of "imitation of men" for smoking. On the contrary, the reason why Yves Saint Laurent was famous at the time was actually quite different from the thought base of the Chanel era. Since the 1960s, some feminist groups gradually transitioned from liberalism to radicals, and the gender struggle is no longer a catharsis of equal will in human nature, but a class confrontation.

A black textured wool classic evening gown with satin-trimmed stripes, ruffled white shirt, black bow tie and a large satin shirt. The "smoking" outlines the outline of a bourgeois male whose silk lapel allows people to After the meal, the cigar is more elegantly smoked, because the ash can slide down the collar naturally, instead of staying on the clothes, which ensures the cleanliness of the jacket.

At the same time, it is also associated with "brandy."

The class confrontation between the working class and capitalism is the revolutionary fundamental reason for the design of Yves Saint Laurent. Radical feminism regards men as enemies and believes that it is the capitalist system that leads to the subordination of women to men. This allowed the fashion industry to re-examine the blurring between suit style and gender after the 1970s.

As Shira Tarrant, author of Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style, writes: “Wearing a suit is in line with the expectation that women want to be seen as a business woman, but it just proves that women are still derivatives of men’s clothing.”

The suit of this power suit still does not make women free.

Shameful shoulder line

The debate about women's suits emulating men's wear has continued to this day, even though Giorgio Armani has managed to subvert the relationship between suits and women in 1980. In Milan, Armani hopes to make a non-masculine female suit with a thin stripe pattern, soft fabrics, high heels, and a tailored fit. Type trousers.

Most importantly, Armani put a large shoulder pad into the clothes, which is considered an iconic design. However, this still does not mean that they do not emulate the existence of men.

1980-1990 was a time when women gradually mastered the right to speak, but this power only played under the disguise of the shoulder-shoulder suit. Vice observes: “These large-shoulder suits and trousers mask the shape of women, allowing people to shift their attention away from their gender, but at the same time create a sense of authority that continues to make traditional gender roles even more Blurring." So many designers believe that they finally ushered in an era where women are respected while being feminine.

However, this judgment actually overturned the female wearing a suit to demonstrate its goal of resisting tradition. Whether women wear men's clothing is to highlight the priority of the times, or to hide behind the gender trial, has become a dilemma.

This has caused a lot of controversy on the shoulder pads. The beauty of the shoulder pads covering the original lines has led to a gender-based differentiation of consciousness in the fashion world. Some male designers, such as Alexander McQueen, think fashion is almost synonymous with tailoring. He once said, "If you don't have a chest, then I can help you shape it." But Chanel thinks men don't know how to design women's clothes.

"Don't lengthen the width of your shoulders, you can't even highlight the contours of your chest. A beautiful coat should work hard to fit the body," she said.

This is the advice of female designers. But in fact, there is also a differentiation within women, such as designer Elsa Schiaparelli who feels that the wide shoulder design can make the rest of the body look slimmer and achieve an Egyptian beauty.

Others believe that women should be ashamed of their lack of a broad shoulder line? This may be a self-confidence.

In fact, if the answer to the above question is no, why do we have to rely on clothing to modify our body shape? There is no doubt that clothing is not only the art of cloth, but also our body.

“The suit is a successful costume for people who don’t know much about clothing, because anyone can’t wear it too ugly.” Japanese philosopher Sumida Kiyoshi once commented on the inclusiveness of the suit, and the suit was therefore Called the spirit of citizenship.

Because people's positive yearning for beauty is often accompanied by the repair of the body, but the standards for "beauty" are not the same. For example, in the public aesthetic, marketers are constantly instilling a small girl who is more suitable for high-waist skirts. If you are fat, don’t wear a round neck and other standards, because it is thin. This is not the case with the “advanced beauty” that is closer to the artist. In the minds of structuralist philosophers such as George Bataille, pornography and beauty are opposites.

Beauty is to remove animal sex as much as possible, remove gaze from sexual organs, and remove sexual impulses. The so-called "sexual cold wind" has been vigorously developed in the past few years. In particular, the black and white gray suit is the darling of the fashion industry. Unlike the pink and blue, the black and white ash has no gender label, and there are more possibilities in design, which has become the political correctness of the fashion industry.

Chinese women wearing wide-shoulder suits

But no matter in which culture, clothing is a way of hiding the body.

Kiyoshi Sumida gave a case in the book "Weird Body". There is a monastery in northern Italy. The toilet inside has neither a door nor a compartment. Interestingly, there are a lot of masks hanging at the exit, which are meant to be put on when people go to the bathroom. They think that it is okay to be seen by Lazars as long as they cover their faces.

"That is, as long as you blur your identity, any behavior can be allowed. Such excessive freedom is inevitably frightening."

It is precisely because of this that we are always misinterpreting the meaning of "sexual cold wind", it has nothing to do with sex, but about the cold treatment of identity. The stem of the term "Normcore" is "Norm", which expresses a social benchmark. Popularity is the mask in the toilet. It means that when most women put on suits, the suit's position and fighting attributes are already Greatly subsided.

In 2019, suits have become the most undivided uniform in this society, a social attribute that each of us can demonstrate, and an obsessive-compulsive disorder that advertises self-awareness.

But in fact, it has long been synonymous with " mediocrity."

So, when we now see the slogan of some clothing brands saying, “Which clothes do you represent, who is you?”, you should ask yourself, is this really true?

Most people's fashion choices are unconscious results. My friend Yushan is a soft girl, but she recently bought a few suits. She said to me: "I want to wear a chiffon skirt in my suit, which will make me more women."

I asked her again: "Is this style the legendary mother with man?" Apparently she doesn't like to be as hard as a man: "Hey, I don't want to wear it when you describe it like this," she replied. .

Searching for the trend of this spring will find that the wide-shouldered West is equipped with silk dresses and so on. The handsome and feminine mix and match style is the biggest craze. By strengthening the opposition of gender symbols to highlight the characteristics of a certain gender, such as the suit to counter the feminine femininity, is a goal pursued by the current suit. Dior 2019 spring and summer with a minimum of suits and gauze skirts, perhaps a good case, they all prove that there is a compromise between tough and sexy.

We found that we especially like to watch those "feminine women" wearing suits. In the Taobao search data, in addition to "Yao Chen with the paragraph", "Ni Ni with the paragraph" and "Tang Yu with the same paragraph" ranked second and third respectively. The latter two looks charming, Yao Chen is because the corner of Su Mingyu caters to the public's sympathy for the patriarchal thinking in the original family, so she wears a variety of suits in almost the whole drama. This is a counterattack. A kind of revenge is also a typical expression of gender symbolization.

After growing up, Su Mingyu used a suit to cover up the shadow of childhood, while at the same time concealing the strength of adulthood. It can be seen that Chinese society is still too obsessed with "productivity" in the expression of female consciousness. It is believed that only wealth power and big package can make up for injustice. Only one gender can overwhelm another gender to achieve power parity. This kind of expression should be alert to the trap of patriarchal resistance against patriarchy, which may make us still banned in the old concept of the future.

However, this may be no small improvement.