Cultural Patterning has become easier to recognize thanks to the ease of the internet and societies’ new developed habit of over sharing their lives and cultures. Through printed, digital and televised media recognising cultural patterns and cultural disparencies has became so easy one only had to have a twitter account to notice it. Fashion is one of the very few industries that is primarily concerned with women but the freedom in form and aesthetic in women’s clothing has left little for men
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to experiment with. There is a distinct cultural pattern in western culture that frowns on menswear that is elongated or assumes the form of a dress. Whilst in eastern and African cultures it is common for men to wear 'dress' like garments. The conflict between Western, Eastern and African ideals can be said to be a result of religion dictating fashion. The western refusal to accept males in silhouettes similar to females is a cultural pattern similar to Eastern culture but spurred on by
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different written and unwritten laws. In Eastern and African cultures, it is the norm for menswear hemlines to be below the knee, See Indian Men, Nigerian Men (in a traditional Agbada).
Eastern and Western cultures tend to have strong religious influences that transcend into fashion choices, most commonly understood by the Hijab, Abaya and Birka worn by Islamic women to show modesty to Allah. |
In the Qur’an it says of women;
“...and not display their beauty except what is apparent, and they should place their khumur [hijab] over their bosoms...”
“Men Must cover their awrah (from the navel to the knee) in front of all unrelated women...” “Should wear a jilbab that enshrouds the entire body and covers any open spots” (Ibrahim, 2018)
While religion plays a vital role in Eastern cultures such as Islam, western cultures are more guided by comfort and trend. Majority of western cultures are housed in secular societies and the impeachment of one specific enforced religion has made this consumer and trend driven industry the front runner of fashion and dressing that is abstained from religious concerns. While the world looks to the west for guidance, little can be said for the variety of menswear. Men are limited to the simplistic, monotone three-piece suit at best, even at the highest level of dressing- couture/formal wear. The western culture of shaming males into believing that they cannot wear any garment with a silhouette or hem line distinctive of female clothing is a western cultural pattern that has transcended to all those who look to the west for fashion leadership. The world looks to the west and the west looks to the lime light. Males like Jaden Smith, Kanye West, Jarred Leto and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson are celebrities that have been entertaining the disapproval of wearing a skirt, dresses and elongated garments. They have been consistently shunned except for the one hailing hero, Jaden Smith. After doing a campaign with the
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After doing a campaign with the ever controversial Louis Vuitton he has been hailed as the poster child for gender free/fluid dressing. Jaden’s choice to publicly wear female clothing which was widely shunned but leisurely accepted by people his age, proves the cultural pattern within young westerners to accept new fashions based on comfort and not religion or stereotype. This can only be said for the sub-culture of young westerners, who’s culture of acceptance is less favoured amongst the more seasoned. While Jaden and his peers gradually encourage a break from gender based clothing, images of moments from other generations present a more honest reality than the Louis Vuitton campaign. Both cultures show a pattern of not wanting to be seen as female. While Eastern culture derived this spirt from extremely specific religious instructions, western culture seem to have inflicted in on itself. Whether or not it will be easier to dismantle such staunch gender stereotypes in a culture that was instructed to think so or a culture that willingly concluded so, is unclear however the freedom that got the western culture to this self-regulatory law seems to show hope that the same freedom might break those cultural shackles.
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