Declarations of Womanhood via Masculine Silhouettes

*Baggy clothing as agency at the dawn of an oppressive administration*

Instagram // @doechii

If you’ve managed only a peek at the internet in the past month, you’re familiar with Doechii.

The rapper recently won Best Rap Album at the 2025 Grammy Awards for her hit record Alligator Bites Never Heal, accepting the award in a grey Thom Browne suit with a shrunken jacket, tie, and a pair of exaggeratedly voluminous pants. Just a few weeks before, while performing selections from ABHN at an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Doechii wore another oversized ensemble: a zip-front jacket paired with a wide-leg trouser by Willy Chavarria. Doechii frequently taps into traditional menswear to craft her preppy-eclectic, glamorous-“it girl” look – and it seems she’s not alone.

Across red carpets, runways, social media, and city sidewalks, women are reaching for roomier ‘fits. Saint Laurent’s Spring 2025 runway gave new life to the ‘80s power suit. Influencers like @wuzg00d and @sierrarenas regularly attract thousands of likes and comments on racer jackets and button-downs that (unlike women’s shirts) fasten to the right — all 2 to 3 sizes up from their “proper” measurements. Before her Super Bowl performance, SZA revealed the cover for her latest album SOS Deluxe: Lana, which features the R&B singer-songwriter sporting an oversized camo jacket and parachute pants.

The long and the short of it? The girlies are wearing baggy clothes.

This swaggering silhouette harkens back to the 1980s and ‘90s hip hop scene, when black women, such as Missy Elliot and Salt-N-Pepa, popularized similar styles. Elizabeth Way, curator at the Museum of FIT, noted that these pioneers were fighting for their place in a heavily male-dominated field — and using clothes to help them do so.

“We saw a lot of women adopting more masculine looks as a way to be taken seriously,” Way said. She continued, “At the same time, we [saw] these really unique feminine touches… mixing silhouettes, oversized with something skin tight or showing a midriff.” In other words, they put their own spin on the standard male rap uniform.

The reemergence of oversized silhouettes today coincides with a larger cultural theme of (certain) women rejecting traditional feminine ideals in the wake of a distressing political climate.

“For any woman it doesn’t matter what they’re wearing, it’s how they’re feeling. For me, it’s baggier clothing that I feel comfortable in,” said Sarah Harden, a 24-year-old Nashville jewelry store lead stylist and baggy clothing enthusiast. “When I wear baggier clothes, I feel like myself. I feel 100% empowered.”

Harden expressed her affinity for styling menswear pieces with feminine elements such as dainty jewelry stacks and nail art as she develops her style further.

“Baggy clothing is easier to style… like a fitted top with baggier pants– there’s such a thrill in it,” she said.

Masculine pieces rearticulated with feminine elements prevail in the boutique markets as well. Melina de Groot, a wholesale womenswear designer based in Los Angeles, said that her most successful styles right now are rooted in menswear. “Boxers are typically made for men, however, a few of our accounts have wanted a silhouette of a boxer short [lengthened to be] made into a pant with leopard print or bows added… making it hyper feminine,” she explained.

Yet a duality is developing across the womenswear landscape: one strain restricts and exaggerates the female figure, while the other allows the body’s free flow. The Spring 2025 couture shows — such as Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s collection for Jean Paul Gaultier and Daniel Roseberry’s for Schiaparelli — included a striking amount of corseting. So did the recent Oscars red carpet, with Raye, Mikey Madison, Ariana Grande, and more squeezing into constricting gowns that looked like they were from the 1950s. The inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump — who actively campaigned against abortion rights, trans rights, and other matters in favor of personal agency for female identifying individuals — saw First Daughter Ivanka Trump and billionaire Jeff Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sánchez in tight, hourglass silhouettes, further literalizing today’s restrictive atmosphere for women.

Harden has noticed this too. “It seems that when women wear baggier clothes, it goes against society — in the sense that [society tells us] we should wear more things that are fitted and show off our bodies well," she said. “But what if I don’t want to show off my body?”

As the cultural climate in the United States hurdles towards further restriction for female-identifying individuals, women will create agency where they can. And sometimes that agency looks like a pair of baggy pants.

As Harden says: “I feel more confident in baggy clothes because I feel more myself. And to me, confidence is sexy.”

x

KR

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Declarations of Womanhood via Masculine Silhouettes

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