Bending the Rules: Fashion Beyond the Binary

Bending the Rules is a fascinating, provocative, and highly entertaining visual exploration of identity and gender through fashion.

Celebrated costume designer Camille Benda seamlessly weaves together the cutting-edge and the historical--spanning high fashion, dress in film, trendsetting brands, art history, and more--showing that gender and fashion have always been intertwined. Brought to life with a dazzling array of more than 160 images, Bending the Rules combines short essays and interviews with creative professionals to offer snapshots of fashion and gender expression across cultures, places, and time.

This unique portrait of fashion and identity explores how clothing can be serious and playful, limiting or liberating, express joy or longing, fear or fun, and much more. Readers will find captivating examples as wide-ranging as gender-confirming underwear line Urbody to Buddhist monastic life, Brad Pitt's red-carpet skirt to gay cowboys and codpieces, Playboy and bustiers to Native American Two-Spirit beings. For anyone fascinated by fashion or the sociology of clothing, identity, and gender, this book offers a one-of-a-kind immersive experience.

VISUALLY RICH: More than 160 visuals include illustrations by Gwyn Conaway, a costume designer, fashion historian, and culture specialist, as well as archival and contemporary photography, self-portraits, magazine covers, embroidery, and more.

AN ACCESSIBLE ENTRY POINT TO THE WORLD OF FASHION: Through illustrated timelines, custom graphics, and content crafted with a sense of humor, playfulness, and curiosity, this artful social science book is accessible for newcomers and experienced fashion enthusiasts, from tweens exploring their own newly forming identity to cool aunts and switched-on grandparents.

A GLOBAL APPROACH: From an 18th-century French chevalier to Japanese kimonos, medieval alchemical manuscripts to 15th-century Flemish paintings, African Ndebele aprons to Scottish tartans, this deeply researched exploration spans time, cultures, and geography.

Perfect for:

• Fashion enthusiasts
• Costume and clothing designers
• Beauty and body image advocates
• LGBTQIA and nonbinary readers seeking examples of gender expression throughout history
• Students and educators
• Anyone interested in fashion, design, gender studies, sociology, and history

Author: Camille Benda,Gwyn Conaway
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: 01/20/2026
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.50h x 7.30w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781797227610

About the Author
Camille Benda is the Head of Costume Design in the School of Theatre at California Institute of the Arts. She has a Master of Fine Art in Theatre Design from Yale School of Drama and a Master of Art from the Courtauld Institute in the History of Dress. Her first book, Dressing The Resistance, celebrated the role of clothing, costume, and nudity in activism and protest. Her recent projects include costume design for Bad Sisters, an Apple TV+ series starring Sharon Horgan and Daryl McCormack, and the feature film The Last Manhunt starring Jason Momoa, Lily Gladstone, and Christian Camargo.

Gwyn Conaway is a member of the Costume Designers Guild Local 892. She's a costume designer, fashion historian, and culture specialist living in Southern California. Although she works primarily in historical and dramatic film, she also consults on costume simulation for major animation and gaming studios. She specializes in Marvelous Designer and garment model fit. Conaway co-authored Talking Threads: Costume Design for Animators and Illustrators, published by Design Studio Press.