




What If Adam was Eve? Photoshoot Objective:
To create visuals challenging the
stereotypes related to gendered clothing.
This is the most powerful force
perpetuating the fashion divide; the fact
that we have all been trained from an
early age to regard some clothes as
strictly for men, and other clothes as
strictly for women. And anyone who
refuses to follow this code is seen as
making a huge statement.
The most telling part about all this is
what it says about the value we attach to
masculinity and femininity. When a man
wears pants and trousers most people
will think little of it. The rules are
however very different for men wearing
clothes that are deemed to be for
women.
Put a man in a dress and it’s the stuff of
comedy and ridicule, as if there could be
nothing more absurd than a guy in a skirt.
Underlying these reactions is a profound
disrespect for women and all that we
associate with femininity.
In the end, the “rules” around gendered
clothes aren’t about fashion, or taste.
They’re about how we mark difference,
enforcing and reiterating restrictive
ideas about what it is to be a girl or a boy,
a man or a woman.
Perhaps this is the real issue; that to
challenge the rules of fashion is to
challenge our settled ideas about gender
roles.
WINNING TEAM!
+ Photography by Lyra Aoko
+ Model Junior Nyong’o
+ Stylist Brian Msafiri
+ Makeup Artist Valary Mdeizi
+ Studio Aoko Creative