My name is Ben, which hopefully you know by now, I am 22 and, horrible before 8am. I wear a ring on every finger, put too much perfume on and, cannot speak any other language beside English. I have size 10 feet, an addiction to tea and, a tendency towards melodrama. What I am trying to put across is that I am a person, just like you.
Back to that title, what makes clothes not just clothes: Labels. I hate labels, abhor them, cannot stand them. I have been labeled all my life, once people see that I am gay they put me in a box and I cannot defy their expectations of what they think I should be like. Well let me tell you, I'm not into your gossip and I won't be death dropping any time soon so get over it Maureen. So you can see that I have a clear hatred of what labels can do to people, whether they are gay, straight, trans, gender fluid or if they just want to be a cat, I really don't see the need for labels, it really doesn't matter for goodness sake. You don't need to know my personal details just treat me like a person, whether I am gay or not.
This is exactly the same for clothes. Clothes are clothes, what ever you say, they are just garments to cover up what we don't want on show at all times. So why on earth should it matter which section of the shop my outfit was purchased. The outfit I am wearing in this post, the jacket and jeans were both from the female section, but what makes them so? That's right the LABEL, without the label they are just clothes, and that is how I treat them. No one can see what it says inside, and so why on earth should it matter what it says. Clearly there are some garments that are engineered for a certain reason- bras for example, but that is for clear reasons. When it comes to anything else it honestly makes no difference at all.
I don't care where I shop, and because of that fact I feel so much freedom in how and what I wear. I wouldn't bat an eyelid if my sister dressed head to toe in H&M man, as long as she feels comfortable she can wear whatever the hell she likes, and so can you. Next time you look for clothes, don't just shop in your gender specific store, if you see something in a section you don't normally shop in, try it on and you will see that beyond that tiny piece of fabric in the back it is just a garment. It is so astonishing that we limit ourselves from so many things in this world just because of perceived social acceptability.
So join me in spreading the message that clothes are just clothes, so that we can move on with our lives and bother with the things that are actually important.
See you soon sausage 🌭💋
What I am wearing:
Jacket: Asos
Jeans: Alice and You
Shoes: Adidas
Sunglasses: Asos, old, Similar
Nails: Chanel Rouge Noir
Shot on a mixture of 35mm and digital
By Myself and Rachel Pechey