“Clothing Fit Issues for Trans People” by Reilly, Catalpa, and Mcguire (2019) and “Pocketing the Difference: Gender and Pockets in Nineteenth-Century Britain” by Burman (2002) are academic studies focused on the limitations of dress in relation to gender. Dress in both studies refers to clothing where functionality and utility are needed. For Reilly et al (2019), function is defined by fit and comfort, while Burman (2002) is on the availability and use of pockets for storage on the body. Although the type of clothing discussed in these studies differ in size, gender plays an important role for both. Both subjects are minorities (compared to cisgender and male persons) who need clothing that conceals. Concealment for Reilly et al (2019), is clothing that allows the wearer to ‘pass’ in public as their gender identity. For Burman (2002), concealment is to have pockets that provide storage without obstructing the wearer’s comfort and silhouette. However, concealment was/is not a concrete need for both studies. The Reilly et al (2019) study included persons who do not solely conform to one gender through their clothing and Burman (2002) included texts that discussed how certain styles of pockets were too indiscrete and small for women.

Both studies used qualitative methods for methodology. Reilly et al (2019) sourced interviews from a large pool of subjects and Burman (2002) incorporated historical materials, including writings made by women, to find and explain a phenomenon. Through these methods, the scholars sourced a problem in dress. Also provided were better understandings of two consumer groups who have and do participate in the fashion industry.

Prompts

Clothing Fit Issues for Trans People

1) “Clothing fit (dis)satisfaction stems from …” (Fit and Sizing Systems, para. 2)

2) “A transgender person’s physique is in different stages of development during …” (Transgender People’s Body Image, para. 5)

3) “The Functional, Expressive and Aesthetic (FEA) Consumer Needs Model (Lamb & Kallal, 1992) provides the framework …” (Framework, para. 1)

4) “Participants were recruited via advertisements …” (Method, para. 4)

5) “This research should be considered in light of its limitations …” (Conclusion, para. 2)

Pocketing the Difference: Gender and Pockets in Nineteenth-Century Britain

6) “The principal elements of men and women’s experience of pockets …” (pg. 448, para. 2)

7) “The pocket advantage over women which was enjoyed by men had …” (pg. 454, para. 3)

8) “By the later nineteenth century the hands-on ….” (pg. 456, para. 3)

9) “Moving on now from possessions to the gendered body itself …” (pg. 460, para. 2)

10) “It can be argued that the suggestive qualities of concealed and visible

pockets echoed …” (pg. 463, para. 3)

Macaronis were a fashion subgroup that challenged hetero-normative male dressing through the wearing of pastel-colored silks and towering powdered wigs. As Macaronis found influence in both aristocratic and middle-class circles, public outrage towards the group materialized in satirical writings and illustrations. McNeil (2000) writes that this criticism transitioned the group from a subculture to “the realm of caricature … the style was, in the end, deemed unhealthy and a threat to masculinity itself ” (pg. 1; 2). 

This notion of the public making fun of a male-based fashion subculture did not end with the Macaronis. During the mid-Aughts, male hipsters became societal fodder for their groomed beards, beanies, and “man buns,” or hair tied into a bun style. In How the song Yankee Doodle was about obnoxious 18th-century hipsters (2015), a comparison between Maracronis and male hipsters were drawn. The article’s writer Phil Edwards explains, “But let’s be honest. Weird clothes? Jokes about masculinity and sexual experimentation? … Macaronis were annoying hipsters … Powdered wigs were the man buns of the 18th century” (para. 9; 12). Despite a 200+ year difference between the two groups, it appears that Western culture is still unease towards male fashion expression. 

Sources:

Edwards, Phil. (2015, Sept. 13). Yankee Doodle was about obnoxious 18th-century hipsters. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2015/9/13/9312147/macaronis-yankee-doodle. 

McNeil, Peter,  “Mocking the macaroni: Fashion Victims of 18th-century England” Rotunda(Vol. 32, Issue 3.) Mar. 22, 2000