The blazer – from masculine to feminine

From the Victorian elegant dresses, which seem impossible to us, to the long and uncomfortable skirts, along with the involvement of women in social life, the vestimentary needs brought a major change. At the beginning of XXth century, women needed comfortable and practical clothes, in which they would feel free and also elegant. Hence, there were introduced in women’s fashion elements from men’s wardrobe.

The blazer was and still is one of the representative apparel when we think of an elegant, austere, classic, business outfit. Although almost all of these features seem peculiar to a man, if we assort them with a woman’s grace and smile, they create the image of a strong feminine figure from our century.

We can say that the man blazer was feminized by the bold designer Coco Chanel or that the feminine prototype of the XXth century was masculinized by the fashion tendencies adopted by her. No matter how we see this emancipation of the woman, putting a blazer on the balanced shoulders of a woman was an important element used in breaking the barrier between the two genders, not only esthetically.

The cause of the apparition of blazers wasn’t only the need of change in women’s fashion, but also the period of World War II which replaced in their lives the gala evenings with daily labor. Therefore, not only from esthetical reasons, the blazer appeared in the feminine wardrobe more as an accommodation to the social conditions. As a first result of the feminization of the masculine wardrobe, Coco Chanel created the famous tweed suit that immediately became one of business women’s favorites.

Through the years, the androgen style developed as a combination of masculinity and femininity and it became a worldwide trend in 2000. From the elegant tweed blazer proposed by Chanel, women from our century gained the confidence of wearing their men’s blazers without any adjustments, the famous boyfriend jacket becoming a trend among women.

The man blazer can be worn with a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of oxford shoes for a casual outfit or it can be adapted to an elegant office dress along with oversized accessories.

Nowadays, the blazer is a must for conservatory women, for women involved in politics or business, for strong women. Therefore, although the blazer was initially an exclusive man piece of clothing, now it becomes part of the image of a strong and independent woman.

 Translated by Cristina Maria Tanase