The French couturiers analyzed by Pierre Bourdieu were predominantly male designers, and issues of gender were not sufficiently examined in his work. Despite the fact that fashion is a field primarily directed toward women, the reality that its creative center has long been dominated by men reveals a structural distortion inherent in the field itself. Even today, although the number of female designers has increased, it can still be argued that leadership within the fashion world remains largely in the hands of male designers. Many of the most prominent designers are men, and they have often produced clothing that emphasizes the contours of the female body, presenting women as attractive and sexualized figures.

Within this male-dominated structure, female designers have developed alternative strategies. In the 1920s, Coco Chanel introduced clothing for the “new woman,” liberating the female body by prioritizing practicality and functionality over ornamentation. In the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli disrupted conventional notions of fashion through artistic and witty designs, while Madeleine Vionnet brought out the natural movement of the body through innovative cutting and draping techniques. In the 1950s, Claire McCardell proposed practical clothing for active women, promoting fashion that aligned with women's everyday lives. These efforts can be understood as forms of resistance against the image of women defined by men.

From the 1970s onward, this movement took on a more explicit form. Vivienne Westwood challenged established notions of elegance through styles such as punk and bondage, while Donna Karan presented practical clothing for working women in urban environments. These designers questioned male-centered fashion and proposed new ways of dressing for women. In this sense, the “position as a woman” is not merely an attribute but functions as a strategy to challenge existing norms.

Within this genealogy, particularly significant are Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, who appeared on the Paris collections in the early 1980s. They fundamentally questioned the relationship between clothing and gender, destabilizing Western ideals of feminine beauty. Rather than emphasizing the body's contours to enhance attractiveness, they presented loose, oversized garments with ambiguous structures, rejecting the idea of decorating the female body as a sexual object. Equally important was their adoption of restrained, monochromatic expressions—particularly black—in contrast to decorative and colorful fashion.

Kawakubo emphasized women's independence and proposed clothing that did not cater to male approval. Her work, while being “for women,” simultaneously rejected conventional femininity. The brand name Comme des Garçons (“like boys”) itself signaled a clear challenge to established gender norms. Yamamoto likewise questioned the very distinction between menswear and womenswear, proposing designs that blurred gender differences. He aimed to create men's clothing for women, and many women embraced this approach.

Clothing has historically been one of the most effective means of visualizing gender differences. However, looking back at European fashion history, such differences were not always as pronounced as they are today. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, gender distinctions in dress were less rigid. In the 19th century, however, differences became more explicit: women emphasized their body contours through garments such as the corset and crinoline, while men adopted simpler and more restrained styles. In the 20th century, designers like Chanel and Vionnet partially mitigated these differences by introducing less restrictive clothing, yet even today, women are still expected to appear “feminine.”

In this context, the attempt by Kawakubo and Yamamoto to blur gender distinctions should be understood not merely as a design innovation, but as a critique of modern fashion itself, which has been structured through the male gaze. Their oversized, predominantly black garments presented a clear alternative to the norms of Western fashion. In the Parisian fashion field—dominated by bourgeois, white, and male positions—they strategically embraced multiple marginal positions, such as “anti-bourgeois,” “non-Western,” and “feminine,” in order to challenge the existing order.

In this sense, the “position as a woman” is not simply an attribute but a strategic stance that disrupts the dominant structures of the field. By transforming marginality into a weapon rather than a weakness, Kawakubo and Yamamoto succeeded in creating new values within the fashion field.