Anything Goes - Celebrating the 20s

cumbersomecummerbund:

sydneyflapper:

Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), French author.

In drag.

Which makes her just that much more awesome. She also pioneered the bob…in 1903, which puts her way out in front of Irene Castle and Chanel who claimed to have invented it.

I think it’s ridiculous to say this is “drag” - why, when a woman dresses in culturally designated “male” clothes does that necessarily mean she is in “drag”? I’m so sick of this po-mo faux-analysis on the past and gender in the past. fuck.

 I use the term “drag” in reference to the theatrical origins of the word. This is a woman creating a conscious act of performance…as I do when I use the term “drag” applied to myself (i.e. when I dress up in a 1920s tux with a monocle and top hat). I don’t refer to myself or other women as wearing “drag” when they’re not consciously creating a persona…e.g. in the 1920s when women adopted such traditional male attire such as jodphurs and britches for daily wear. By the same token, when male friends choose to don female attire because they enjoy or feel comfortable in it, rather than as an act of performance, I wouldn’t refer to it as “drag”. Hope that clears up my usage of the term.

(via cumbersomecummerbund-deactivate)