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From a feminine ornament to a symbol of protest: the story behind the "Pussy Come" shirt - Walla! Fashion

2021-03-05T05:58:28.425Z


The style of dress that includes a wide and flowing bow tie started as a feminine and soft embellishment. The change came in the 1960s, and since then the style's status has only become established as a symbol of female empowerment and protest against harassment.


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From a female ornament to a symbol of protest: the story behind the "Pussy Come" shirt

The style of dress, which includes a wide and flowing bow tie, began as an elegant, feminine and soft decoration.

The change came in the 1960s, and since then the status of the collar has only been established as a symbol of female empowerment and protest against sexual harassment.

From Margaret Thatcher, through Melania Trump to Camela Harris - this is the story of the "Pussy Come"

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  • Melania Trump

  • Kamla Harris

  • Margaret Thatcher

Gal Slonimsky

Friday, 05 March 2021, 07:30 Updated: 07:41

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Pussy Come on Valentino's runway at Paris Fashion Week, January 2020 (Photo: GettyImages)

In recent years, "pussy come" shirts - shirts with a collar that is tied with a bow tie, are seen everywhere, and very often in a protest-political-feminist context.

However, these shirts are not in the line of recent times.

They were born so long ago, hundreds of years ago, that it would be a real insolence to attribute their use to the 21st century, despite their current context to the spirit of the period and the changes in relation to women that led to the trend exploding.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, we decided to go back to the history of the item with the most cheeky name in our wardrobe and figure out what path it has taken to what it is today - a protest clothing item.

And thanks to Donald Trump, of course.

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Inspiration for the trend.

Louise de Valier, the mistress of Louis XIV, King of France in the 17th century (Photo: GettyImages)

The butterfly knot attached to the neck, now known as "Pussy Come", was born in 17th century England, then began to be popular with both women and men.

It was a decorative element that symbolized modernity and elegance and therefore won sympathy among dressers.

So, this style has not yet been given a dedicated name.

In the 19th century it was France, considered the first fashion capital, that adopted the style and saw it as feminine, soft and sweet.

The idea was a tie around the neck reminiscent of a bow tie, but a larger and looser bow bow than the seller.

The "Pussy Come" connection was then given the name: "Valier", after Louise de Valier, the concubine of Louis XIV, King of France in the 17th century.



The 20th century has already embraced with great love the style that began in the previous century.

In the 1920s, it was Coco Chanel who designed clothes with the elegant bow tie, and she also saw it as a feminine decorative element.

In the 1930s Vogue gave this style recognition, so it was born "Pussy Come", which did not at all want to be a mention of a dirty slang word describing the female genitalia.

The innocent thought behind the name was a tie ('Come' in English) with kitten-like ears ('Pussy' in English).

The men's suit for women designed by Yves Saint Laurent, 1967 (Photo: GettyImages)

After World War II, when women went out to work in place of the men recruited for combat, male clothing items made their way into the female wardrobe.

It was a protest attempt by women to demand equal rights in employment and in general towards them, by adopting masculine clothing items.

In the 60s came the peak of masculine attire for women, when for the first time they started wearing masculine suits.

So too did the pussy come back to the front of the stage.

In 1967, Yves Saint Laurent introduced his men's men's suit, to which he attached a male tie.

You could say that the 1960s brought the bow ties back to their trends - and for the first time linked them to a feminist protest.



In the 1980s the "Pussy Come" received the seal that linked it to politics.

In that decade, the bow ties became associated with the "Iron Woman", after all she is former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Her work clothes included, among other things, a lot of "Pussy Come" shirts, and so this shirt became her trademark and one that symbolizes female power.

Thanks to Thatcher, an item of clothing that may have been "feminine" and "soft" has become powerful and tough.

At Thatcher's funeral in 2013, Samantha Cameron, the then British Prime Minister's wife, paid tribute to her in a 'pussy come' shirt to pay her last respects with the item of clothing he was most identified with.

She wore quite a few "Pussy Come" shirts.

Margaret Thatcher with Shimon Peres, 1985 (Photo: AP)

In the decades that followed, the "Pussy Come" shirts were always in the background, but with Thatcher's death, their fame seemed to have passed.

Then came the second decade of the 21st century that brought them back as a particularly powerful female protest item.

During the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, a recording of his past that shook the world was revealed.

"Grab them by the pussy", was his offensive, sarcastic and degrading quote towards women that he said in 2005 and was exposed more than a decade later.

As expected, this particular sentence upset quite a few people - men and women alike - and drew a series of protests.

The strongest reaction recorded to Trump's trial was on the part of his wife, wife and style - Melania Trump.

A few days after the unveiling of the old recordings, she arrived at an election conference wearing a pink Gucci "Pussy Come" shirt.

The crowd could not help but wonder if this was a premeditated message or just a coincidence.

Four years later, it can be said with almost certainty that this was her way of conveying a message of support for women, and going against her husband's statement.

Melania Trump in Gucci shirt, just days after her husband's recordings were revealed, 2016 (Photo: GettyImages)

After being elected president, Trump's dirty sentence, in which he blatantly described sexual harassment and consensual touching of women's genitals, continued to haunt him.

After the inauguration, a wave of women's protests erupted in the United States.

At one of those events, the protesters arrived in pink sock hats with kitten ears.

These hats have been nicknamed "Pussy Hats" - "Pussy Hats", if you will.

And this is their way of using an item of clothing to express their protest in choosing a man with abusive rhetoric towards women for the position of the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States.

Shortly afterwards, a MeToo protest broke out that began online on Twitter and spread hugely around the world, toppling huge and successful men - who were exposed as serial harassers.



For better or worse, Trump's offensive quote bounced off the "pussy" -style stock - this time the bow tie that began as an innocent-clad item received a connotation of female empowerment and protest against patriarchy, lust and sexual harassment.

Since that year, this bow tie has been seen everywhere.

Gucci may have been the trend leaders, but few designers have not adopted the style.

Tom Ford put up an entire collection with the phrase “Pussy Power” on the runway at New York Fashion Week 2016 and many designers have started promoting the bow tie.

Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Balenciaga, Miu Miu, Carolina Herrera and more continue to incorporate the collar in question in a variety of items in the new collections as well.

Women on the road to a demonstration against Trump in the United States wearing the "Pussy Hats" (Photo: Reuters)

In April 2018, the "Pussy Come" T-shirt made headlines again, this time as a symbol of female protest in Sweden.

Many women wore the shirt to express support for Sara Danius, the Swedish Academy's secretary who headed the Nobel Prize in Literature committee, who resigned in protest of the academy's handling of a sex scandal by photographer Jean-Claude Arno, who is married to one of the committee's members.

The scandal and the resignation of Danius led to the fact that in 2018 for the first time no Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded.

Danius, just like Thatcher, showed a fondness for "pussy come" shirts precisely because of their dissonance - on the one hand transmitting softness and on the other hand a client from the male wardrobe.

Thus, in 2018 there was an unusual enthusiasm among women who incorporated the "pussy come" in their wardrobe due to the brave step taken by Danius.

Brought back the "pussy come" to fashion in Sweden.

Sarah Danius (Photo: GettyImages)

From Margaret Thatcher, through Melania Trump, Sarah Danius - to this day.

The "Pussy Come" shirt can no longer evade being a symbol of female empowerment and protest against the old order, in which men have more rights than women.

The last to use it as a symbol very recently was Kamla Harris, the first vice president of the United States.

In her victory speech she chose to wear a white Carolina Herrera suit with a host of hidden meanings, with one of them hiding in her "Pussy Come" shirt.

This was in fact her way of conveying a message to the outgoing president, Donald Trump, a kind of finger in the eye of whoever is behind one of the most outrageous statements there is towards women.



Whoever's why the "pussy come" shirt calls for dirty and offensive slang may have finished his job, but the shirt and style are here to stay.

It is doubtful that the "pussy come" will ever be able to break away from the protest and feminist context that clung to it, but perhaps it should not.

It will forever be a reminder of the power of women to influence, change - and stand up for themselves in demanding equality.

The United States is not ready for another term of those who treated women in a disgraceful way.

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Source: walla

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