Dressing in a more androgynous way is something many of us start when beginning our social transition. It can be incredibly difficult to work up the courage to say who you are so we often take baby steps to explore our gender expression before slapping a label on it and pushing that last line to the git. 

I dressed rather androgynously for a solid year before ever even trying on my first skirt. I still have most of the clothes I wore during this time and so hopefully I can demonstrate how to dress more androgynous for you. Granted, I have pretty big boobies now so they don’t fit like the used to but we can try to work our way around them.

Dressing androgynously isn’t as hard as it might seem. The fashion venn diagram of what is considered exclusively masculine, what overlaps, and what is feminine looks something like this 

While a lot of things may be feminine, as women have more fashion options, masculine options are usually pretty strict. The key to looking androgynous is having a mix of both masculine and feminine pieces of clothing, or by wearing what’s in the ‘ungendered’ middle. Boxy silhouettes are becoming more androgynous but because I hate them personally, I believe they usually belong more in the men’s section. There are more feminine ways to pull it off I’m just holding a grudge because it makes shopping tedious when everything is boxy.

Another easy approach is to simply mix and match different pieces from both sections simultaneously! Wearing a women’s jacket with ‘men’s’ pants might not seem to make a difference to your own eyes but it’s the small details that count especially for your silhouette from far away or when viewing your from the back.

For example, a regular hoodie is ungendered + leggings which are gendered

Silhouettes will be the most apparent thing that is feminine or masculine. They are going to be determined a little bit by your body shape but you can manipulate it with your clothes. The cut of your clothing is also super important! This mostly matters for the neckline of your tops, since most masculine clothing is always a straight👎 cut.

A majority masculine silhouette with feminine cuts is going to be what looks androgynous to most people. That usually means a larger silhouette for the upper body. Occasionally when wearing the following outfits, I still get misgendered and so if you think ‘wow Ms. transfemmestyle is transition goals #slayqueen’ then this could be very helpful!

What do we notice as the common themes for these outfits? The lack of softer color. Colors are for women and gay people, except for red because that’s the color of blood and war and manly shit. Everyone knows this. So combine that with me being taller than 99% of people and it typically ends up being a coin flip on getting gendered correctly. People address me as a woman after hearing me speak so the point is proven that looks can be deceiving. Depending on how you swing it, you could wear bright colors to make things more feminine, or no color/neutrals only to make the overall vibe more masculine as the dark and brooding aura signals something other than women who are 100% joyful and pleasant looking at all times. Compare these 2 tones of green hoodies, which one seem more feminine despite the silhouettes?

The other aspect to most of these outfits is that they are loose-ish on my upper body which conceals the curves to my chest and waist. You don’t need a lot to conceal, but even when wearing this form fitting rain jacket with a hoodie under it, I’ve gotten misgendered. If you don’t need to hide curves try highlighting them instead and use other items to shape your silhouette!

Silhouettes play a large role on your lower body as well. Men’s clothing is 80% straight cut, 15% slim/skinny and maybe 5% wide cuts. Women’s clothing has more variety and details like flared jeans or shorter hems to show off shoes or simply just skirts. Given that wider cuts of bottoms add bulk I would advise to stay within straight and skinny cuts for pants, avoiding most other types of bottoms aside from shorts. 

The other important thing to note here is that every single outfit above is either short sleeves or long sleeves. Men’s clothes are sometimes sleeveless but it’s much more cultural/climate dependent on how people perceive it. I hardly ever get misgendered when wearing sleeveless outfits like the following.

But here are some more gender ambiguous looks,

Textiles that are worn by everyone also go a long way. Leather, denim, canvas, cotton or basically any knitwear can be worn by anyone without being gendered. Because of this, try your best to incorporate those kinds of pieces. From the outfits above, (100%) of them have 1 pr more of these fabrics! It all depends on how you style them together as most cis people do just fine with their boring default gendering when wearing the exact same items. Even the choice in belts can make a difference depending on the material, buckle or other embellishments like rivets. 

But the main thing I want to emphasize is that your body shape plays a large role in androgynous perception. Clothes can do a lot of the work but using your body shape can play in your favor. The more I show my body, the more I’m perceived as a woman, the less I show my body, people either misgender me or straight up ask (which is more annoying tbh). If you ever want to wonder how much body shape matters, I have been misgendered from behind when wearing my VERY pink jacket, and the colorful button up!

Most of the outfits have pretty simple colors or neutral colors. However, even the colorful outfits are more ‘abstract’ in terms of gender presentation because of how they obscure my body shape.

Changing the cropped top for a t shirt or even just doing up the buttons can completely change it from the front.

Accessories are important as well since most women accessorize in some way, and most men do too, albeit more subtly. Jewelry choice is important particularly for your hands/wrists as this is where the largest difference is. Men wear watches and bulkier rings or bracelets with few details, often with different harder wearing materials like leather and stainless steel. Women could wear dainty jewelry with charms or rings with gems. It all depends on personal taste. Picking a variety of either or having the pieces be eye-catching enough that people notice and contrast the gender signaling of your outfit should be enough. Most handbags are enough to make a difference as well to push something as more feminine, so be mindful of that.

Earrings can go either way but I would say keep it small if at all; studs or small hoops. Necklaces are different in that if you wear a single chain necklace or a single necklace with a large pendant like an Ankh it could work in your favor. Again, just signal the opposite of your outfit. The more of a statement you make your jewelry, the more people will notice it.

Even just a set of necklaces can make a subtle difference.

Other accessories like certain kind of hats, like beanies, are typically associated with masculine looks, while scarves (in an American context) are associated with feminine looks. They can be very useful in making an outfit appear more androgynous if most of what you’re wearing signals a bit more masculine, especially if it’s a pop of color and a more ‘feminine material’ like silk/satin. Scarves are especially useful for hiding unwanted features.

Let’s remove my body shape from the equation and just wear a white shirt and blue jeans. If you wanted to up the feminine touch of your outfit, you could put on the scarf! Same goes for with a blazer.

Putting on a more rugged looking jacket also changes the outfit massively to appear more masculine leaning, btu again it’s influenced by your body shape. The left is not particularly androgynous because of my chest. Shifting the scale with the jacket is what makes it more androgynous.

Long hair obviously is going to help you in most cases as well. It can take a long time to grow out but generally makes a pretty big difference. Especially if it’s fluffy, curly or dyed as most masculine presenting people don’t bother styling it in any way, although that is starting to change. 

Now for particular aesthetics that are easily androgynous the key is the styles whose signature silhouettes are not dependent on the wearer’s body type. For example western yeehaw looks don’t vary that much gender wise, it’s dependent on the wearer’s body or the choice in colors and other accessories.

Punk looks however aren’t really dependent on body shape, and aren’t very gendered either making them a perfect choice selecting androgynous elements.

But cultural factors play a large role in what people wear and what is acceptable. My mom handed down some suits to me because she never wears them anymore and an interesting thing to note is how many of the suits she offered are skirts and a blazer, without pants. Some have both!

Suits were traditionally worn by men but as women started to wear them it was still considered ‘unacceptable’ in many cases to wear pants, so there was the option of a skirt! 

Gender norms are constantly changing over time so don’t feel bad about mixing and matching men’s or women’s section clothes together, they’re all just fabric at the end of the day.

Gen Z (But mostly the queer community which up to 20% of Gen Z identifies with hence the association) is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for normalizing androgyny which is a bit of a double edged sword since normalizing more feminine stuff is a little annoying for us trans fems to be honest; but still, don’t limit yourself because of social norms!

Developing your own sense of what aesthetic works for you is important here as it’s easy to go overboard on something you feel pressured buying into which I go into more detail in this post.

Now with everything in mind, don’t just throw together an outfit with random bits and pieces from both ends of the gender spectrum. Thought actually has to be put into it and playing dress up is key for fashionista development. Spending hours trying things on is tedious but find a key combination you like for jewelry and stick with it! Or keep 1 pair of pants on and try it with a specific shirt and then every jacket you own, etc. Go shopping while wearing the key items you love to find supporting pieces easier.

Androgyny is all about mixing and matching to balance the scales between your body and clothing as these are the indicators people use to label a person’s identity the most. It’ll rarely be instant clarity.