Have you worn a tailored jacket this week? If so, you have also been wearing a skirt. Technically, jackets are skirted garments – the lower part, from the waist down, is known as “the skirt”. The tailored jackets worn by Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson, Joe Biden: they’re pretty much long-sleeve button-front minidresses. The suit is a globally understood signifier of patriarchal power. But, like all other clothes, it’s just drag.
This month, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London opens Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, the museum’s first major exhibition dedicated to men’s clothing. The show will gather 100 contemporary and historical outfits, alongside 100 artworks, to reveal how menswear has always pushed beyond binaries, even in garments considered traditional.
