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The Sexist Distinction Between ‘Style’ and ‘Fashion’
Why are men celebrated as stylish and women belittled as fashion victims?
Fashion-conscious men, with very few exceptions, do not admit that they are fashion-conscious. Even men who write exuberant and informative essays on the details of tailoring, shoes and leather goods for blogs and magazines dedicated to clothing deny that they are interested in fashion. Instead, most fashionable men set up a dogmatic distinction between fashion and style. Fashion consists of outlandish garments concocted by egocentric designers with French and Italian names and peddled by rapacious businesses. It is the domain of hairdressers, obsequious department store salespeople and, of course, women. Style, by contrast, involves the skillful combination of practical and functional garments. It is the hallmark of unimpeachably virile figures such as Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, Sean Connery, Frank Sinatra, Sidney Poitier, Miles Davis and Michael Caine. A more inclusive list might include one or two remarkable women in the pantheon of the stylish. These women usually have the last name of “Hepburn.”
People invariably evoke the style/fashion distinction to suggest the moral superiority of style over fashion. Style is sensible while fashion is silly. Style is frugal while fashion is wasteful. Style is refined…
