美国国家公共电台 NPR At New York Fashion Week, Ungendered Clothes Make Appearance On Runway

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now it's time for our regular segment Words You'll Hear. That's where we try to understand a story that will be in the news in the coming days by focusing on a key word or phrase. And while tonight may be all about football for some people - OK, millions of people - in New York right now, it's Fashion Week. And one phrase you may be hearing is ungendered fashion. That's because one of the trends we started seeing in the menswear fashion shows that just concluded were clothes described as ungendered or gender¹-blurring.

We wanted to learn more about this and whether we will see this as so-called womenswear as presented in the coming days at New York Fashion Week. So joining us now in our studios in Washington, D.C., is Washington Post fashion critic Robin² Givhan. Thank you so much for joining us once again.

ROBIN GIVHAN: Thanks for having me.

MARTIN: So could you just paint a picture of what ungendered fashion or gender-blurred fashion looks like?

GIVHAN: Essentially³, the idea is that a lot of the traditional notions that we associate with a particular gender - male or female - are now being offered for the opposite gender. So for men, that often means that the clothes have a frillier feel to them. You know, there's more color, perhaps, there's florals, things that are normally associated with womenswear.

And then on the women's side, it's not so much just sort of doing menswear for women, but it's an idea of sort of moving more toward something that is tailored, that has a bit more restraint to it, that looks a bit more sort of traditionally powerful. It differs from what we tend to think of as androgynous dressing⁴ because it's not meant to delete the notion of gender. It's meant to mix it up.

MARTIN: Now, you also wrote a piece for The Post today talking about how some of the menswear designers were inspired by recent political events. How were these political sentiments expressed on the runway?

GIVHAN: You know, it really ranged. I mean, there are some designers whose work is very much just about a nice suit, a beautiful sweater. And so for them, you know, it was just the music that they might have been playing before the show began, you know, give peace a chance or a little, you know, U2.

One collection by a guy named Willy Chavarria was inspired by the Ava DuVernay documentary "13th" and was focused on the ways in which particularly people of color have to navigate⁵ a criminal justice system. There were other designers who put, you know, protest signs in their models' hands. And then the German-born designer Robert Geller took his bows wearing a T-shirt that said immigrant.

MARTIN: I noted⁶ that the so-called menswear concluded last week and the so-called womenswear is upcoming. Harkening back to the beginning of our conversation, do you envision a moment when those categories might indeed disappear altogether?

GIVHAN: I think there's always going to be a place for separate women's and separate men's designers in part because there are some designers for whom one or the other is their expertise⁷ and they feel more comfortable there.

But I should say that probably the most anticipated show of the women's season is Calvin Klein because there's a new designer there, Ralph Simmons, and he decided⁸ that he wanted to show both men's and women's together on the same runway in one debut⁹.

MARTIN: That is The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion writer - culture writer Robin Givhan. She was kind enough to join us from our studios in Washington, D.C. Robin, thanks so much for joining us once again.

GIVHAN: Thank you.

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

5 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。