“Curating That Confusion”: Nonbinary Dress Strategies and Their Implications on Identity Development

Cis- and transnormative narratives percolate through dress and shape trans people's lives as they negotiate social legibility with self-expression. Recognizing their influence, this study explored nonbinary dress strategies and their implications on identity formation. Three dress strategies were identified: dress to direct others’ perception of one's gender, dress to disturb cis- and transnormative normative norms and dress to obtain safety. The study found that nonbinary people's dress strategies evolve directly in relation to cis- and transnormative narratives. While some made use of these narratives to signal their gender or their queer kinship, others needed to reject them to move towards congruence. Dress strategies assisted participants’ identity development, enabling them to gauge others’ and their own perception of different versions of themselves. Far from being a banal detail, the study showed that paying attention to and creating space for nonbinary people's dress and self-presentation strategies may offer therapeutic benefits.