About a year ago, Covergirl announced their first “Coverboy”. The company has been around for decades. In fact, it was started in 1961, and just recently, it’s decided to break the status quo and redefine gender norms. For their first Coverboy, they’ve named James Charles, a teenager from upstate New York who developed his love for makeup like many other young people today do, on social media. He reached out, in the form of his tutorials, on many different platforms, the big one being YouTube. He’s not the first to use these platforms this way–makeup tutorials have become regular appearances in video-driven and photo streaming apps. Gigi Gorgeous is one of the earlier examples of someone young who achieved fame this way. Surely, she would have had an influence on young James. People praised James initially because he wanted to take his senior picture with make-up on, and that went viral on Twitter. The main point is: social media gave him a wider audience and allowed him to reach a broader range of people, which helped him break gender norms in fashion and beauty, proving that for this generation, anything is can be made available and possible. We have the right to be who we are, and we have the power  to announce that through social media.

There have been many other influencers and celebrities who have broken gender norms, for example Jaden Smith with his Louis Vuitton ad campaign. Young Thug also broke traditional boundaries by posing for his new album cover in a long dress, and on top of that he brought two different cultures together. At the end of the day, the idea of gender is bigger than “boy” and “girl”. Fashion designers are always trying new ways to break gender norms, so fashion more and more becoming bigger than just the men’s section and the women’s section. For me personally, fashion and gender go together hand in hand, I am going to wear something that I personally love, not something that has to be in the men’s section.

I agree with Christopher Breward’s aphorisms on fashions studies, and how he views them. I believe that fashion is not all about what you wear, and what labels you own, it is about expressing yourself and how you view fashion. As a child I was taught that fashion was not really a form of art, and then maturing and finding my identity I think my perception changed a lot. Today in society, we are very focused on the media, and how celebrities portray style. I believe that the younger generation is focused on what the Kardashians are wearing, and don’t really understand the history of fashion and the concept behind it. I like in the article how it says, “fashion students across the world are encouraged to believe, in the delusional mirage of star designers, the catwalk show, and the luxury brand. It berates the narcissistic cult of celebrity that places individualism above the community. It bemoans the loss of skill and an understanding of the value of craft that has destroyed the European textile industry, and regrets the exploitation of labor and natural resources in low-wage regions.” When reading this, it proves exactly what I was saying, we need to stop focusing on designers and labels, and focus on the garment, and the actual art of fashion.