The concept of “ironic dressing” is a tricky one.
Say you see a woman wearing a Rainbow Brite tee or a bowler hat. She may be wearing that tee because she misses the carefree days of childhood, or because she connected on some level with that cartoon character, or because she just plain likes colors. She may be wearing that bowler because she digs the steampunk look, or because she’s experimenting with gender roles, or because she just plain likes hats. But she may also be wearing that tee or that bowler to prove that she believes herself to be far cooler than anyone who’d wear such things in seriousness. Hard to tell on first glance.
Say you see a woman wearing high heels, red lipstick, and a full skirt with a nipped-in waist. She may be wearing these things simply because she likes them. Or she may be wearing them to attract a mate, or to mask aspects of her body she feels are inadequate, or because she feels she must in order to live up to societal expectations. But isn’t it also possible that women may dress in traditionally feminine styles ironically? That some ladies pull on dresses and heels as a means of showing disdain for the forces that made them popular and prevalent? That they may, in essence, be saying, “I am so far beyond the surface-level implications of these garments, I can wear them and transcend them.”
If not, why not? If so, is there a way to tell the difference? Does it matter?
Image courtesy zerbetron.
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Hmm, seems like a lot of effort to don heels and a dress just to make a point. I guess some might, but probably more would just wear something comfortable and make the statement otherwise.
For me, there's a type of "play" involved in ironic dressing. You might not be able to identify the woman just by the way she looks, but I think that ironic dressing is done "best" when the person's behavior/the way she carries herself reveals the ironic statement. Perhaps the irony has to be _performed_ in order for it to translate (though, obviously, those not paying attention to the performance are likely to miss the statement).
I think drag is an extreme version of this type of ironic dressing– people who are unfamiliar with drag culture might think "oh, that man wishes he was a woman," but others more familiar with (or attentive to) the performance are likely to realize the ways the person dressed in drag is making a statement about the items of adornment.
Women can dress "in drag" in women's clothes, too, I think. I have a friend who dresses in a pin-up style every day, but it's always done subversively. I wait desperately for her new photos to pop up on facebook because even through the photograph I can get the vibe of irony she's throwing off. She always looks amazing, but you'd have to be an idiot to think she's somehow trapped inside a 1950s patriarchal structure that dictates her dress.
Great questions! Looking forward to seeing what other people think.
Honestly, this all seems far too convoluted and confusing to my simple mind. I understand that some may dress in a way that demands attention but I am not sure that many of us are devious enough to dress in such a way as to demand attention for their irony as opposed to the actual clothing – that would mean the people whose attention they garner would also have to think one step ahead and deconstruct the reasons behind the clothing. I think most people look at others and either think, I'd love to be able to dress like that or OMG doesn't she have a mirror or a good friend to dispense some tactful honesty! Personally, I wear clothes that I find comfortable outside of work and for work I do my best to put my own personality into boring office clothes which I would never normally wear if the constraints of my workplace didn't dictate that it was so.
It's interesting to think about, but I am not certain that it matters why a person is dressing the way that they are dressing EXCEPT for to that person. We all choose what we are going to wear everyday. And we all have different reasons for choosing that particular costume to wear. In the end, the only person who knows your reasoning is you. Yes, it is possible to dress ironically. But you are probably going to be the only one who "gets it". And that's okay!
I think women dress traditionally for all the reasons you listed. being able to spot the difference is the real question. It's hard to tell from clothing alone the difference between someone that adores traditional feminine dress and someone transcending it. Its easier to tell whats going on inside someone who dresses 'frumpy'.
Pointy Pix: I take it you haven't met many hipsters. Lucky you
Ironic clothing, ironic facial hair, ironic belief systems, it all seems fairly common to that subculture.
I myself occasionally put a touch or ironic traditional femininity in my clothing. My job is part secretary, part traditionally-male labour. I enjoy retro-inspired sheath dresses and pencil skirts and sometimes up the Mad Men feel with the rest of my outfit because I feel if I'm going to be secretarying in my secretary dress, I might as well go all-out Joan. Likewise, me and another woman who do the outdoor mens' work part of my job have made plans to draw all over our chest waders in glitter glue. We're both adults, and she's a bit of a tomboy, and we'd never consider using glitter on our outfits otherwise, but adding a bit of over the top feminine to such masculine clothes in a masculine setting gives us a bit of a giggle.
While neither or those are quite a skirt and heels just for irony's sake, I figure someone is bound to have taken it further in the way you described.
oh lordy…..i grew up in the SF Bay Area and still live here….ANYTHING can be worn ironically. worn so that you don't have to ASK about it, even.
butch lesbians, femme lesbians, femme lesbians dressing butch (ironically), pre-op transsexuals (all different varieties), drag queens, girl jocks, bears, leathermen…..that's just a small taste of the various queer identities, all of which i've seen 'performed' ironically. (not to mention the reference librarian in the downtown branch of the Berkeley library who presents as the spittin' image of G. Stein. ironically.) listing the various straight identities…..no one has the time.
from where i sit, the ? is 'can trad. femme dress be worn straight these days' (ie. un-ironically). and, judging by a 6' 3" pre-op guy-to-gal trans lady i knew on Piedmont Ave., i'd say 'yes'.
The way I look at it as this.
There is what our intention is, and then there is how other people see us.
Of course different people are going to see us different ways, but I think that dressing ironically would be the hardest look to actually communicate in a way that somebody else would really get that's what you are going for.
So I guess it all depends on whether or not the person is dressing ironically for themselves, or hoping to convey a message…
After reading some of the other comments, I would like to add that context/environment/setting/location would also have a big impact on how irony in dressing was presented and perceived.
And the difference also between random strangers and people who know you…
My goodness. I am very square it seems. Glad I have all of you to keep me clued in! My initial reaction was "no" but I think I just am not as familiar with the subtleties!
I think you got it right with "it doesn't matter." Or at least it only matters to those who think it matters, sort of a secret code that is fine for those who care, and the rest of us are free to think whatever we like.
I agree with the poster who said that context is an important part of performing irony.
for me, at least, it's the inconsistencies that alert you to the irony.
A new acquaintance told me a horrible joke recently, where the punchline was about rape. When I said the joke was terrible and not funny and I didn't laugh, the person told me I just didn't get it. He explained that he was telling the joke *ironically* and that it was funny precisely because he wasn't the kind of person who would tell rape jokes. I pointed out that he just did tell a rape joke.
If someone is going to dress 1950s femme, I think they should own it. "I am dressing in a style that was popular in an openly racist, openly sexist era because _____." Whatever their reason is. I'm sure there are any number of valid reasons. But if their reason is that they are doing it ironically? Because it is supposedly so ironic to be a feminist dressed to fit restrictive gender norms, and not for Halloween or a protest march but for everyday life? It's not funny to me.
You're messing w/my head today Sally!
I think irony-as-way-of-life is finally dying. Thankfully. I always thought it was a particularly vapid and facile way of interacting with the world.
For me, feminine drag was never about irony (in the "I'm so above this" kind of way), but about reclamation. I love red lipstick and dresses and cooking and knitting. As a feminist, why shouldn't I be able to dabble in the things I want to dabble in regardless of what those things may have once signified? Dressing in such a way ironically, it seems to me, is no better than being bound by the patriarchy: you're doing it out of spite, not out of desire. Isn't being a feminist about having the freedom to be what you want to be? As long as we're allowing the patriarchy to control our actions (including spiteful or ironic ones), we're not really free of it.
Eve, I'm going to firmly reject the suggestion that dressing in a style that's a nod to the 50's is in any way racist or sexist.
For me, part of being a feminist is that I am allowed to take pleasure in my body. I am allowed to have fun, to celebrate some of the aesthetic experiences of being a woman. Note that I also teach in a historically male field, and practice my anti-racist, anti-homophobic feminism in a very socially conservative part of the country. In my own life, it's more subversive to be a feminist in heels and a frankly figure-celebrating dress than to dress in the more-acceptable gender-neutral slacks and polo shirt favored by my (sometimes quite anti-feminist) colleagues.
I don't choose my style of dress because it garners favor from men, or because I think I have to look cute allthetime, but because I want to be happy, and pretty shoes are one thing that makes me happy in an otherwise sometimes overly complicated and difficult world.
Referring back to hipsters and their ilk, I think irony is a terribly difficult and fraught thing to pull off. You may think it's amusing; your friends may think it's amusing, but any number of onlookers are going to think you're an asshole. Which, as in the case of the rape joker above, is all too common with irony in general. As a form of humour, it all too often relies on an invisible middle finger stuck up at the rest of the world, to let them know that you, the ironist, are above their sad little conventions and beliefs.
I wear vintage fifties day dresses to my work, where I am a scientist and researcher who works with physiological data and saliva assays. So you might say I'm an ironic dresser, wearing a petticoat under my lab coat.
Personally, I don't think of it as "ironic." I love the styles, they're comfortable and very flattering to me. I also love my work and my identity as a scientist. By pairing two such disparate images, I feel like I'm challenging peoples' gender assumptions in a very up-front, yet simultaneously playful, way.
But beyond the social commentary, and MOST importantly of all, I dress the way I do because it is an affirmation of who I am- femme and scientist (and queer, and Christian, and a crafter and and and etc, but one can only wear so many clothes at a time!).
Holly: Ahhh, interesting! I can see how including intentional inconsistencies would make the tipoff easier.
Jillian Schrager: Reclamation is my preference, too, by a LONG SHOT. But that choice creates the same questions that everyone has brought up here in reference to ironic dressing: How can you convey something as complex as reclamation overtly? Or do you want/need to? (For the record, I have no earthly idea on either count. I grapple with both questions all the time.)
I think we should let other women dress however they want and leave our own imposing of judgment out of it. What gives me the right to say someone else's "reasons" for picking a particular look are valid?
I do have a horse in this race, though! Today I'm dressed like a 1940's telephone operator. I even have a vintage hat. It's a tad costume-y. But it is also comfortable, sustainable (all thrifted) and figure flattering. It's not irony, I actually love the look and feel great in it. I have no political agenda beyond sources (buy American! Buy vintage!).
Being a woman is hard – you get judged on your weight, your appearance, your decisions. I think we can all encourage each other to be and feel the best we can be, even if that means wearing a bowler hat. There are plenty of people dying to tear you down, let's not start the posse here.
Dressing ironically sounds like self-inflicted punishment to me… I mean that when a woman has accepted her body=her SELF, it is impossible for her not to dress in a way that unleashes her inner voice…
Over the years I have become more lenient and far less judgemental on people's (especially women's) stylistic choices, even on a subconscious level. I owe this change to the recognition and respect of my own body, that lovely house of my mind and soul
(Am I the only one who's noticed the gigantic typo in the post header? Sorry, Sal!)
I think I can usually spot the difference between someone who is "in costume as" a particular style, and someone who just wears that style. People who go to great extents to make a clothing statement often do it so thoroughly that it's impossible to mistake as "I just put on a skirt and heels today".
I've always wished to be able to put on costumes well (in costume as a tribal belly dancer; in costume as a dancer out of costume but still recognizably a belly dancer; in costume as a professor working on a project vs. in costume as a director of a program, whatever). But I have so many costumes for my professional and avocational life that I can't imagine adding yet more layers of meaning, it's already hard enough work to hit the appropriate note/be cool/whatever.
I'm a bit surprised at the vitriol towards ironic dressing from a lot of posters. To me, wearing traditionally feminine clothing ironically is, like Dragonpaws said, a sort of playful way of making a social statement and challenging people's assumptions. Certainly it can be done badly, and often is in the hipster subculture, but I don't see what's offensive about it in general.
In fact, I'd say reclaimation, done effectively, requires a shot of irony. Juxtaposing traditional feminine style with an untraditional femininist lifestyle seems to me to be the only way to reclaim the style. Certainly, I'd say it goes farther than pairing traditional clothing with traditional attitudes towards gender and an "I choose my choice" mentality.
I wonder if posters feel the same way about other types of ironic dressing, such as pairing a biker jacket with pearls, or wearing workwear or western-inspired clothes in an urban setting.
More Than Meets The I: I don't see dressing ironically to be not letting one's inner voice out. For some of us our inner voice IS a cheeky, irreverant one
.
I admire the construction of 40's/50's garmets, but that's about as far as it goes.
I own two or three dresses from those eras, all purchased on a whim at my favorite antique shop, but I prefer to look, rather than touch. For me, day-to-day dress is about function, cleanliness and respect for my evironment.
I think every person dresses to perform some role, regardless of what it is: everything from business executive to ironic feminist 50's girl.
Personally? The whole vintage as Monday-Friday dress thing doesn't do it for me, but I would never say or think something negative about a person who does enjoy that form of dress expression.
In the end, it's about what makes you feel your best. I may not agree with the idea that restrictive 50's style can be performed ironically, but maybe that's just because I know I couldn't pull it off.
Such a great question. I always think of dress as a form of communication and, like all other forms of communication, the message can be misinterpreted.
As others have pointed out, whether a costume is understood as being ironic depends on the audience. In this case, the audience first and foremost has to understand the concept of clothing oneself ironically. This understanding is more widespread in some regions and subcultures than in others. I'm ambivalent about the value of irony for irony's sake, but, that said, I disagree that ironic dressing of this type is generally difficult to spot, since most individuals who clothe themselves with an ironic performance in mind DO want the message to be clear. They (we?) really don't want the performance to be misinterpreted as genuine; at the very least, the desire is to put doubt in the minds of your audience members as to the sincerity of your appearance. This is why, among ironic dressers, a Whitesnake concert t-shirt is awesome and a Nickelback concert t-shirt is verboten, although both could technically be worn ironically. It's hard to quantify exactly, but I basically apply a Potter Stewart "I know it when I see it" standard.
Now, I still think it is a lot harder for women to get away with ironic costuming than it is for men, and I think it is because a) women's fashions are so diverse; b) women are judged so much more harshly on their clothing and appearance; and, c) feminism hasn't triumphed. Women are still expected to be feminine, and so successfully dressing femme with intentions to performing irony when one is not in obvious vintage costume – whether full-on Betty Draper, or rockabilly, or pin-up, or even Ren Faire – is next to impossible.
CompassRose: SHIT! Thanks for the heads up!
Tikimama: I'm not attempting to judge or shame women who do or do not choose to dress femme ironically. Far from it. Just asking a question about intention and perception.
Ugh, I despise the whole concept of 'ironic' dressing; to me it seems so affected and ridiculous. It's one thing to don a costume for a specific situation and have some fun playing around with a look that you'd ordinarily never wear, but to do it on a daily basis because you consider yourself too cool to be burdened by what they outfit conveys is just dopey.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to determine if someone's outfit is meant to be taken seriously or not, so any irony is going to be completely lost on me. My default assumption about anybody's outfit is that they're wearing it because they like it, because I can't imagine why anyone would wear something they don't like.
Well, irony is a humor derived from contrast, so the point of wearing a garment ironically isn't necessarily to mock the other people who wear it – though that happens, and I think it's poor taste – but to combine it with the rest of your self-presentation in a way that throws that garment and the assumptions around it into sharp relief. I think that this is one variety of being playful and subversive with one's clothing – and certainly, as earlier posters note, can connect to playing with gender presentation, which is a broader and far more awesome topic than any ironic poodle skirt can be alone – but simple irony is also a fairly one-level intellectual operation. "This does not mean what you think it means" is a valuable thing to say, after all, but it's not the only thing worth saying.
"As a form of humour, it all too often relies on an invisible middle finger stuck up at the rest of the world, to let them know that you, the ironist, are above their sad little conventions and beliefs."
Well put, Compass Rose. Wearing traditional clothes isn't subversive. A stranger who has traditional values will read a traditionally-dressed person straightforwardly as having the same traditional values that their clothes represent. Those who are "in" on the irony already share the wearer's subversive goals. So no one is provoked to think deeper or change anything.
I support anyone wearing what they like and what makes them happy — by all means, wear it! Just don't pretend you're being subversive while doing so. You're not!
I agree that it's likely only the wearer that understands why she is wearing what she is wearing. It's an interesting thing to consider when looking at other people – what made them make that decision this morning – and maybe it can start a conversation, but I think it's rarely overtly known.
Very interesting topic, Sal, and fascinating comments.
Thank you Audi, for succinctly saying what I was thinking this entire time!
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to determine if someone's outfit is meant to be taken seriously or not, so any irony is going to be completely lost on me. My default assumption about anybody's outfit is that they're wearing it because they like it, because I can't imagine why anyone would wear something they don't like."
It is hard because on some people this looks great, and on some people it looks just plain wrong. I saw someone dressed like this the other day and she looked like an overgrown child.
It's strange that ironic dressing is even a thing now, which is obviously is! I tend to agree with 'purple shoes loves queer theory' when they say that although irony is
"is a valuable thing to say [or use]… it's not the only thing worth saying." In its worst incarnation irony contains so much cynicism and negative implications that it makes it hard to understand why it would be employed in dressing in this way.
Of course, conversely as many commentors have pointed out, playful and enjoyable irony – often this irony involves a contrast between clothing and the person inside them , shown when they talk, in their work, in what they do (rather than just their outward appearance) – can be very pleasing.
I would point readers towards a brilliant fashion and theory blog, Threadbared, who highlighted in a recent post a free, downloadable magazine/theoretical mini-paper looking at the 'ironic' use of Native American headdresses in (predominantly hipster) blogs, adverts, etc. Here's the link:
http://iheartthreadbared.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/get-it-head-dress/
The limits and boundaries of irony, offensiveness, playfulness and representation are very interesting!
themajicsquarefoundation, your post might be my favourite! I love threadbared and recommend it to anyone interested in fashion and social issues.
Your post also made me realise the source of the weird disconnect between how I view ironic fashion (when it's done right) as a fun way to express parts of your personality beyond the surface "sporty" or "feminine", and the views of commentators who seem to find it almost rude. Irony in clothing often requires people to look beyond the clothing and consider it as part of the whole package of a person (as you say, how they talk, what they do) and maybe do a little intellectual work to figure out the contrast. In today's society where people "have neither the time nor the inclination" to actually think or care about the person they're interacting with, wearing clothes that encourage people to do so must seem rude indeed!
For my part, I enjoy a little playfulness and thought in with my fashion, and I've always liked people with something going on beneath the surface, so a touch of irony and contrast in clothing gets a thumbs up from me!
It seems to me that you're asking a pretty self-selecting group. I am going to assume that most of your readers are feminists and most are interested in attire. Although some, like Audi, say they don't have time to determine whether or not someone is wearing something ironically, my guess is that a lot of us here read and comment on style blogs, which often involves some sort of assessment of someone's outfit. And possibly even reading about whether or not the wearer donned it ironically.
I second the earlier rec. to check out Threadbared's recent bib that includes works touching on a number of these issues.
Much of what I wear is inherently and unavoidably subversive in the context of my life narrative. I do find it amusing. I also think the ironic dressers (i.e. hipsters) are particularly smug about their statements and that's what ruins it.
In my case, I wear bows, frills, and vintage dresses to work in a lab analyzing brain scans. Intellectually I am at home amongst computer scientists and biologists and I guess it's kind of amusing that I am a frilly cupcake kind of dresser in a sea of lab coats. Ironic? Maybe, but I'm not trying to make a statement. I wear what makes me happy.
Another layer of subversion for me is putting on a vintage evening gown, fur, and opera gloves chosen from the same closet that contains 11 year old beat up doc martins, safety pinned band tshirts, and a bunch of goth victoriana. I like having many sides that seemingly contradict each other; they speak to my life. I've gone to formal events and basement punk shows in the same weekend and felt equally comfortable at both. My shredded band tees laugh at my frilly bow blouses and vice versa. I like being many things at once, it keeps life interesting.
Some types of ironic dressing bugs me more than others. An example of the type of thing that really gets my goat is the Three Wolves T-shirt (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/three-wolf-moon). It’s worn ironically by hipsters because it’s so uncool. But I have a friend who wears wolf t-shirts unironically, just because he likes them and he thinks they’re cool. And I’m pretty sure he’d feel bad if he knew his t-shirts were someone’s ironic joke.
I feel like traditional feminine dressing is too broad and common to be very bothersome. If I see someone dressing that way, unless I know her, I assume that she just likes that style. Maybe in some contexts it might be subversive, but even then, it doesn’t necessarily read as mean spirited to me.
But when my hip graphic designer coworker comes to work wearing a wolf t-shirt, I pick up on the joke pretty easily and it seems icky to me.
People might have all kinds of things going on in their minds…they should remember that others only see the outside.
I agree with Eve, Audi, and CompassRose. Also, irony taken too far is quite affected. It is not possible to dress ironically every day while also being sincere, dressing ironically every day ceases to be ironic because the clothing is no longer a costume and rather it becomes the standard text upon which you represent yourself to the world.
I think it's funny that someone would go out of their way to dress in something just to purposely be ironic, when people that see that person wouldn't know they were being ironic.
I love the 50s style of dress, I think it can be sexy. I love pinup clothing. I don't fit into a 1950s subservient mind set by any means, ask my boyfriend lol but I don't dress like that to be ironic, I dress like it because I like the style.
I can't speak for others, Tabitha, but I dress for what makes *me* happy, not to impress random strangers on the street. If my clothes are a private little joke that only me and my loved ones get, but it makes me smile, I couldn't give a fig if you get the joke!
Sometimes, I think people forget that fashion should be fun.
Oh BricknBag, I'm more referring to people who do it to make a social statement, not people that do it just for themselves. I'm not condemning anyone from doing it either.
This post came off as if Sal was asking about people who dress ironically to make a statement to others. I believe if you're making a statement it should be precise and understandable (go figure I'm studying PR haha). That's why I said I dress in the same style many people are talking about but because I like the style. Obviously, I'm dressing to make myself happy too, despite if people may look at me may think I'm being held down by a patriarch society. Then again, I think it's funny someone would think that about anyone just because a girl may like to look "super femme".
And it's Tabithia =)
Wow, reading through all the comments, it seems that it very much depends on where in the world you live. Kyla said I obviously didn't know many hipsters – she's right! Seriously, I don't think I've ever met a hipster outside of watching Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn!! I live in Northern Ireland and really we aren't the most sartorially trendsetting country in the world – put it this way, if you see someone dressing in double denim – they aren't doing so because it's ironic or because it's back in fashion – nope they just hadn't stopped wearing it since the 80s!
As for wearing 50s and it being related to a period in time when women were oppressed – maybe I just don't think as deeply about clothing as the other commentators here – to me I wear the clothes I like and that flatter my figure and what was happening historically during that fashion era doesn't come into it.
Ultimately, I look at what others wear in the terms of does it look nice, does it flatter their figure and not what deep subconcious message are they trying to convey by choosing that particular item of clothing. As others said if someone is wearing something ironically, then chances are (especially here in Ireland where we tend to call a spade a spade)it would be completely missed and people would assume they're dressed that way because they think it looks good.
It all seems very emperor's new clothes to me!
Wow had to wrap my head around that idea. I didn't know people were doing this but I am not surprised I guess. Like someone else said it seems like an awful lot of (wasted) effort to do it as a statement against when most people wouldn't even realize.
But like others said I guess I just don't know many "hipsters" in my area.
I don't care either way people should wear what they want but it just seems a bit silly to do it in protest. I hate that you think I should wear a dress so I am wearing a dress. huh?