Power dressing: fall of broad shoulders

During the election coverage last Sunday, ARD presenter Susanne Stichler's pants suit was immediately noticeable. It's super cool, brown-red and gives her a confident look with its no-frills cut. With its slight retro echoes, it even reminds us a little of the past, when the large popular parties SPD and CDU played a more important role, but above all it reminds us that so-called power dressing has been popular again for some time.

The term power dressing comes from the 70s and 80s, when women conquered politics and business and often dressed more like men in order to appear equal. Her choice of clothing was self-protection, a self-confidence boost and a career driver all in one. The simple job outfit, based on male office clothing, radiated assertiveness and a sense of power and, at least in some cases, demonstrably led to professional success, as evidenced by the political clout of Margaret Thatcher, who was a well-known power dresser.

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Today it's hard to imagine the fashion world without androgynous trouser suits, oversized blazers - which can just as easily be called jackets because of their cut, because they fit your boyfriend just as much as you - and huge coats with so-called statement shoulders. At the fashion shows for this fall and winter, some items of clothing could once again be admired in which the shoulder pads are the star of the entire outfit. We know it: a new economic crisis, and the eighties are already greeting us.

With so much homage to the black, blue and gray capitalist uniform, it's no wonder that this look also has its critics. Above all, the late Vivienne Westwood, who chose a different path with her sensational fashion to help women achieve a modern and emancipated appearance. Instead of more or less imitating male fashion, as some of her colleagues did, she parodied it, mixing it with elements of former female oppression such as corsets and crinolines, thereby transforming it into a symbol of strength.

It is largely thanks to her that almost anything works today: oversized coats with thick shoulder padding with delicate silk blouses or extra-long ties with colorful patent high heels. In general, in progressive circles it has long been irrelevant whether a piece of clothing has female or male connotations, and that's a good thing. Because sometimes you want to have the power of a beautiful fairy and sometimes that of a man with strong shoulders, which definitely doesn't mean Donald Trump.

The nice thing is: This season you can do both, because the narrow waist and expressive shoulders give many blazers a gorgeous unisex aesthetic of hourglass and masculine triangular shape. Whether wide or extra wide - with all the turmoil that the catastrophic rise of the AfD and Merz's fall of reforms are currently causing, strong shoulders can't hurt.