Fashion Victim or Style Creator?

I was seventeen, lying down in the front hall of the family home, with my Dad pulling up my jeans zip with a coat hanger! The aim was for every part of the jeans to be so tight there was no room to breathe!

And it worked – no space between my cute young body and the jeans, even between my high heels and the jeans. Of course, I was short (still am!), and the aim of these jeans was to cover my shoes too, so no one knew how short I was. It seems funny now; in those days, many people thought I was taller than I was!

All of this came to my mind because of a discussion with Sara Andrew of Inspire PR Media about fashion and style, particularly regarding XDress. We are both passionate about this in our roles of writer and publicist, and of course, beyond that, it’s intrinsically interesting to us! We realized that this following by rote what the media, the fashion magazines, and the people in the know say we “should” be wearing is quite clearly fashion. There is no space for individual thought or individual expression, just an almost “mindless” desire to get it “right,” look the part, fit in, and not be ridiculed.

It's easy to see from my experience of many years ago that I was, in a small way, a fashion victim. And not just in the clothes I wore but in my desire to be taller.

This is different from style. Style is where we get to express ourselves. Have you ever had that experience of putting on clothes, and your whole body relaxes, feels happy, and others notice? XDress is a space where we don’t need external validation from the style gurus; being in touch with what makes our body “sing” is enough for us.

Of course, with what we call “style,” there can sometimes be some “efforting”, some proving. Think of the person who deliberately goes out of their way to find something different, something that will provoke a reaction in the mainstream. This is different from pure style, where you find what works for you, what delights you, what makes your body feel relaxed and happy, and you go with that without a point of view about what it will create as a reaction or a response in the people around you.

And now we come to XDress. With these designs, this lingerie, we are dealing with “style”, not fashion.

Fashion tends, by its very nature, to be mainstream. And when XDress was founded back in 1989, it was far from mainstream. Kristina and her husband David, founders of XDress, explain how it initially was something new, innovative, and almost forbidden. Until then, the only “innovation” in men’s underwear was different colors from the standard white Y-fronts. Men who desired something different would have to buy women’s underwear. So, XDress, with its beautiful designs that were actually tailored to the male body, was very different and sought after by a minority of men looking for something different, comfortable, and exciting. XDress wasn’t just taking female underwear and making it for men; they were looking at the male body and seeing what would be comfortable and luxurious for men.

When XDress started, Kristina reports how she, in particular, was misconstrued. People assumed she had some kind of agenda to change men for some sort of political reason. Instead, she laughs and says she enjoys seeing men in underwear that they love and is more interesting, exciting, and appealing than “normal” underwear.

The way that XDress has developed over the years is also indicative of its emergence as a style that suits each individual who chooses a garment. David, who designs the underwear, explains how garments are designed based on the customers’ desires and feedback. Rather than XDress dictating what men wear, this company is willing to listen to its customers and evolve based on what the customer is asking for.

And this is reflected in what Kristina describes as one of her greatest joys from founding this company: the feedback from the men. Men share how they love the underwear, how good it makes them feel, and how they no longer feel alone in their desire to dress like this, girlfriends and wives also love it, and some say it has even saved their marriage, actually even saved their lives! And while that may sound like a bold claim, not being able to express yourself through the clothes you wear can lead to a kind of dying inside, a lack of vitality and engagement with life. This underwear is an invitation to live and enjoy life! Even the models for XDress say they love modeling the garments.  XDress’s underwear somehow brings them alive and makes them enjoy the photoshoots.

And this brings me to the next thing I would like to talk about: how difficult it is to define XDress and its garments. It’s easy at first sight to think – oh, this is for gay men! And sure, there are many gay men who buy and love this underwear.

However, many customers are straight men, who love to have different underwear, and wives and girlfriends who love to see their partners and husbands in this underwear. This is very different from fashion, which can easily be defined. By its very nature, style is constantly changing, continually evolving as people and cultures change. This is reflected in XDress’s willingness over the decades to not just listen to customer feedback but to be led by it and to continue to be a different voice in a world where it sometimes seems most people are looking to fit in.

– Fiona