Do women have the right to wear pants?

For most of history, women wearing pants was considered scandalous. In many parts of the world it was unlawful.

Not unfashionable, illegal.

In western culture, prior to the early 20th century, women wore dresses and skirts for everything. This included riding horses which they were forced to do side saddle in large skirts and dresses. It was considered indecent for a woman to ride astride and indecent for a woman to wear pants.

It wasn't until the 1960's and 70's that pants became a common item in women's wardrobes.

That is only sixty years ago.

The pants rule wasn't about style, it was about control.

In cities across the USA, laws framed the ban as 'cross-dressing'. Making it explicit that pants were a man's domain. Not a fashion preference, a legal boundary.

It was about keeping women visually coded in a way that reinforced their place in the social order.

Style icon Katherine Hepburn, frequently caused a scandal by insisting on wearing pants. This was a huge affront to society in the 1930's.

Studio executives would confiscate her pants and she would take them back.

Hepburn understood the rules completely. She knew they were not about style, they were about compliance.

The remaining laws prohibiting women from wearing pants weren't lifted until the 1990's.

The 1990's.

The ban is over but the rule it represented isn't.

Today it just sounds different .

It sounds like 'age appropriate', 'black is slimming', 'flattering', 'feminine', 'classy'.

The rule says your style should be acceptable to the system. It should signal the right things and not make anyone uncomfortable.

A couple of years ago I had a customer approach me looking for an outfit to wear to her wedding. She told me, almost whispering, that she wanted to wear a suit. I squealed with excitement as I knew she would look amazing in one. My excitement was short lived as she confessed that her partner wanted her to wear a dress instead.

The visual code still exsits today.

This week I want you to channel your inner Katherine Hepburn and wear something defiant. Maybe it's a suit, a tie, leather pants? Maybe it's sleeveless top because you've been told to cover your arms, maybe it's a colour because you have been hiding in black. Whatever breaks a rule you are holding on to, I want you to wear it.

Dressing from your own authority isn't about shock value.

It doesn't mean disregarding context and wearing whatever you want whenever you want. It means knowing yourself well enough to make choices that are yours and then owning those choices.

True style is not performing, hiding, shrinking or conforming.

True style is curiosity. It's pushing the boundaries, questioning the rules. Above all else, style is a deep understanding of who you are and the courage to show yourself to the world.

Women have been dictated to for centuries. We have been told what to wear, what to conceal and how to shape our bodies and faces.

But every woman who broke the rule, who took back her pants, who revealed her aging arms, who whispered that she wanted to wear a suit, exposed the truth.

The rules are not about style, they are about control.

Now you have a choice.

You can dress from your own authority or you can follow the rules that do not serve you.

Julie x