Department store
The department store was built for women to walk alone—and it succeeded by making commerce legible, not luxurious.
Gender
Roles, expectations and the fights over who assigns them.
- 10
- in fashion
- 9:10
- average
- 92 min
- in total
- 63
- across the network
All briefs
Haider Ackermann
Asymmetry is not decoration — it’s the operating system.
JW Anderson
Unisex clothing is not a compromise — it’s a recalibration of where cloth meets body.
Power dressing
Power dressing wasn’t about looking powerful — it was about looking unassailable in a system that refused to see women as authoritative unless they dressed like men, then added pearls to prove they weren’t.
Grunge (fashion)
Grunge fashion wasn’t rebellion—it was the first time anti-fashion got trademarked.
Bra
The bra didn’t liberate women—it outsourced control from whalebone to wire, and from corsetieres to corporations.
Corset
A garment that shaped bodies, then language, then medicine—and never stopped enforcing ideals under the guise of support.
Garter
A functional strap became a wedding prop, a male fashion staple, and a Shakespearean punchline—without ever changing shape.
Petticoat
The petticoat isn’t one thing—it’s a linguistic smokescreen for centuries of shifting gender, class and cloth.
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier is a French fashion designer who launched his first individual collection in 1976. His work uses unconventional motifs—corsets, marinières, tin cans—and materials like plastic rubbish bags. He relaunched the marinière for men in 1983, introduced men’s kilts in 1984, debuted the cone bra in 1984, and launched the 'granny grey' hair trend via his 2011 autumn/winter show. He cast older men, fat women, and tattooed models, and played with gender roles. His influence lies in material specificity and casting choices—not in founding movements or naming ideologies.