“But girls can get away with it.”

[draft ]  to be published spring 2020  

Girls can wear oversized mens hoodies tailored specifically to the male demographic and get away with it, without too much scrutiny in regards to wearing a garment that is not necessarily ‘meant for them’.  In contrast, boys are not able to wear the mid-if bearing (thus cropped) pastel pink hoodie with trendy bell sleeves (or what’s left of its original fabric). This puts the female wearer in a position of choice regarding the ‘role’ one chooses to perform. Choosing from the various styles, proposed by fast fashion, high fashion and sports wear creates a discussion making process in which girl are now able to either consciously use the hoodie to cover the body versus using the hoodie to reveal the body (or highlight certain aspects). 

 

Retail shops that dedicate their collections towards a youthful audience tend to occupy the term unisex in order to relinquish gender biases via an *open-minded approach. Still, a lot of retailers don’t seem to understand that unisex does not mean girls-wearing-oversized-boys-clothes. Unisex garments aim to clear the gap between gender inequalities and biases  by offering the exact same garment, fit and pricing to everyone. When looking at the current local retail landscape, it seems that what the shop offers does not seamlessly fit with what the mannequins and visual merchandising portrays.