RETHINKING POWER DRESSING

Gender politics has always been at the heart of fashion. Victorian mores dictated that women wear feminine attire. It was only in the early 19th century when they had tailored garments influenced by men's fashion.

- RICKY TOLEDO & CHITO VIJANDRE

The very term power dressing, as it was originally conceived, was fraught with biases and took into account the male gaze. Now, there's the manosphere to contend with, after Trump's victory which brought like-minded business moguls, led by Elon Musk, to the White House. Even Meta's Mark Zuckerberg lamented in a podcast how the corporate world has been neutered because of the effects of feminism, calling for a culture that celebrates aggression a bit more: "Masculine energy, I think, is good," he said to host Joe Rogan, one of the online personalities credited with moving young men toward President Trump in the 2024 election and was a guest at the inauguration just like Musk and Zuckerberg.

If women had to assert their power all throughout history, which was dominated by patriarchy, recent events made it even more urgent, as reflected on the runways where designers are reacting to the dangers of this overblown "masculine energy." "What kind of femininity can you maintain in this difficult moment?" Miuccia Prada asked backstage at her show in Milan.

Gender politics, of course, has always been at the heart of fashion. Victorian mores dictated that women wear feminine attire of corsets and frills. It was only in the early 19th century when they had tailored garments influenced by men's fashion, and by the end of that century, the Suffragette Movement turned their suits into symbolic forms of rebellion against restrictive clothing norms, embodying the spirit of defiance and independence. This form of power dressing became more sophisticated with Coco Chanel's 1925 tweed suit, combining a tight skirt and collarless button up jacket - designed for women's changing lifestyles as they entered more male-dominated spaces. It helped give them a more "professional" appearance while remaining comfortable and elegant.