This has been a top week for women wearing clothes. At the premiere of Interstellar, you could not move for women wearing clothes if the reports are anything to go by. Anne Hathaway wore something lovely and slivery, with sleeves, and Jessica Chastain wore a long, pink frock with a cool shoulder thing. And everyone is very keen to work out ‘who wore it best’. Not ‘who acted best’ or ‘who gave the funniest quotes’ or just ‘don’t they both look lovely?’.
It might be slightly less awful if Matthew McConaughey was included in the competition, but his snazzy Prince Of Wales checked suit did not earn him an invitation to the frock off. In fact, he only got a look in because he stepped on Jessica’s dress, making Anne the winner by default, because she did not suffer an ‘embarrassing wardrobe malfunction’.
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Over in LA at the amFAR Inspiration Gala, Miley and Rihanna wore outfits from Tom Ford’s 2015 collection, which was VERY big news, because the dresses showed quite a lot of boob. However, it was Miley and RiRi who were pitted against each other, as if ‘wearing some fashion’ is a gladitorial contest. No headlines asked: ‘Just why is Tom Ford so keen to get women to show their boobs?’ And no-one seems to have pointed out that it’s very warm in Southern California, and the amFAR marquee probably didn’t have proper air con, just useless, gusty fans creating a single arctic patch that was being held for Anna Wintour. If I was going to attend a party that looked that sweaty, I too would show up in a lightweight dress constructed from seatbelts.
When she won the CFDA fashion icon award, Rihanna spoke out with endearing honesty about the way she used fashion as a form of defence, admitting: ‘Even as a child I remember thinking “She can beat me, but she cannot beat my outfit’”. We don’t have many weapons in our arsenal, but we can dress to kill. I love Rihanna (and Miley, Anne and Jessica, while I’m here) because she loves fashion fearlessly. She commits to what she’s wearing, and becomes the master of it.
But surely style is more fun when you’re triumphing over your own wardrobe, and not another woman’s? The theatre and the fantasy of fashion is lost when you stop enjoying it, and start seeing it as another front to fight a battle on. I suspect Simon and Louis have much more fun choosing their X Factor outfits than Cheryl and Mel B, because all they have to do is wear a suit they love, and no-one is going to call them out on being the judge with the most VPL. You only have to think about how weird it would be to hear tuxes being critiqued during awards season to know that the system is sexist, and it stinks.
We play women off against each other, in a joyless, bloodless version of The Hunger Games in which the odds are in no-one’s favour - you’re only ever one ill judged peplum hem away from losing your crown. There are countless, dubious ‘studies’ claiming women dress to impress and upstage each other, and we’re innately competitive with each other. These studies don’t take into account the fact that our historical function has been primarily ornamental, and we’ve had to send out signals with our clothes because if we didn’t give everyone something to look at, they weren’t going to listen to what we had to say.
It’s hard to know whether Anne vs Jessica is just another example of what goes on in our homes, schools and offices, or if it’s fuelling the unfriendly fire. Either way, if we stopped forcing celebrities to take part in 'Who wore it best' competitions that they didn’t ever choose to enter, it would probably improve life for women everywhere.
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Follow Daisy on Twitter @NotRollerGirl
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.