Check out these women who model menswear and look AWESOME
A growing number of women are carving out a space within the modelling world by walking catwalks in menswear collections.
Elliott Sailors, Rain Dove, and Erika Linder all appear in menswear clothes, and look great doing it.
Sailors, now 33, caught the eye of headlines when she cut off her long hair aged 19, and began modelling menswear.
She told the New York Post: “It wasn’t so much about my hair—it’s just hair,” and was later accused by a Slate writer of appropriating transgender narratives in order to outwork her peers.
Now she is unfazed by comments about her career choices, and is part of a growing number of women who have been featured in campaigns for H&M, Gucci and other leading brands.
“It’s not essential to even call it menswear or womenswear anymore,” said Sailors.
The 26-year-old Rain Dove, signed up with Major Models as a model for both menswear and womenswear last year.
Standing tall at 6’2″, Dove identifies as genderqueer.
Speaking to Details, she recalls landing a job for Calvin Klein men’s underwear. Moments before going onto the catwalk, she was buttoned into a shirt so people would not realise she was not male.
Dove also said she was paid $200 to not attend the show’s afterparty, so as to hide the fact that she is not a man from the public eye.
25-year-old Erika Linder has featured in campaigns which would normally have a man and a woman, playing both roles.
She has been likened to Leonardo DiCaprio, and was featured by Crocker Jeans.
Speaking of her native Sweden being too conservative, or scared of taking risks, she moved to the US at the first chance she got.
Androgyny in fashion shoots is by no means a new phenomenon. Tilda Swinton is one of the most high profile celebrities to have featured in gender-neutral campaigns.
But designers have been featuring androgyny in collections for years.
This all feeds into a narrative about whether separate collections for men and women are necessary.
Some brands and stores, including Selfridges have already adopted or commissioned gender neutral collections.
Selfridges debuted this amazing gender-neutral campaign in March this year.
There is still some way to go, however.
Two months ago in August, a boss for French fashion house Hervé Leger was sacked after he claimed that his dresses shouldn’t be worn by “voluptuous” women or lesbians.
