Addressing A Dress

Let’s Talk About That Esports Dress

Recently, esports clothing shop Cranium Apparel announced their new, first of its kind esports dress. And its reception has been less than ideal, to say the least.

I’m going to tell you how I feel about it.

Cranium Apparel’s tweets about the dress both initially and following its negative reception are far from problematic. Clearly the intent of this product is (or was meant to be) positive and I do kinda feel bad about all the hate they’re getting. I think we’re playing a dangerous game unloading immediate hate onto well-intentioned people who get it wrong.

At the same time, I can’t help but feel that while Cranium Apparel is handling their situation well, the reality is that—ideally—there shouldn’t have been a situation to handle in the first place. There is a lot to complain about with the design of the dress. And complaints are very different from hate.

Here are my thoughts.

“Gives A New Identity to Female Gamers”

Dresses have nothing to do with female identity, gaming-related or otherwise. Pretty sure the only qualification for female identity is saying you identify as such. I don’t care if you’re naked, in a three piece suit, or a dick costume—if you say you’re a woman, you are. There’s no dress code for existing, and I’m pretty sure that’s universal.

Granted, some people might find wearing dresses makes them feel more feminine. But on the whole, I have to object to this part of Cranium Apparel’s textual introduction to the dress. Also, just a reminder that you don’t have to be a woman to wear a dress.

“Unfortunately No.”

Let me also say that men can successfully design dresses, if they present a good design. Just look at the fashion history. Example off the top of my head: Christian Dior’s “New Look” circa 1947 (although I might be wrong here, so feel free to fact check me).

In any case, female involvement or not, I’m going to address the design of the dress itself and less so any sense of social responsibility to have women on the design team. Not involving women at all seems extremely ignorant to me in this case (and I’ll probably touch on this later), but on the other hand, a lack of female involvement on the design team responsible does not excuse bad design in my eyes. Men can ask dress wearers what they want in a dress and have a successful design, but that didn’t happen here.

Why Is The Design Bad?

I would say that something with good design seeks to fulfill a specific purpose and does so effectively and efficiently, if not attractively (although I am young and not yet a wizened sage of design theory and aesthetic philosophy). Going off of the Tweet announcing the release of the dress, I identify two main goals to consider.

1. Cranium Apparel seeks to “do something for the female gamers who receive so much backlash in the community.”
2. Cranium Apparel seeks to make a dress that folks would enjoy and purchase.

There is nothing wrong with the intention of either of these goals. I do, however, take issue with both the final design and execution of these goals.

Dress Goal #1

Wow is this a worthy but lofty goal, Cranium Apparel. In the dress release tweet, you identify a very real problem in that female gamers receive backlash in the community. I, admittedly, fail to see how making a dress available for purchase does anything to change the community—the people from which female gamers receive backlash.

To be fair, I do appreciate the acknowledgement of this issue from people and companies within the wide world of the games industry. But this acknowledgement and desire to help could be much, much better spent on something besides the availability of a gendered fabric tube.

For example, Cranium Apparel, whoever is running the social media department over there is killing it! I’ve never heard of your company before this whole thing and although I do think the dress is completely ineffectual, I also get a very strong “we’re not assholes” vibe from you. So if you want to change something in the community, try using your social media powers to reach out to people. It’s a very powerful thing knowing someone or a company is on your side.

Ask what people need to feel comfortable, shout out women in esports who buy your stuff if they’ve given you permission, call out harassment, etc. Just be seen trying your best and I promise it’s a step in the right direction. As long as you make sure to include women of color, queer women, trans women, and disabled women, because they should always be included and often aren’t.

No person or company can end all harassment of women in games, but they can absolutely be a drop in the bucket. The dress is simply no drop, I’m afraid. 

Dress Goal #2

At the end of the day, let’s not forget Cranium Apparel wanted to sell a dress to esports fans. And this was their design.

I am no expert on esports, but I’ve bought a dress or two in my day (coincidentally, I’m writing this article in one), and I do have some questions and concerns.

Where Exactly Would I Wear This Dress?

It doesn’t look like something I would sit around and play games in, that’s for sure. My gut says to a cheerleading competition or to fool people into thinking I have a tennis match later. In terms of utility, I do not have much for something like this considering it costs $53 and there are limited venues where it would be appropriate. The dress I’m currently wearing was $12 and I could wear it nearly anywhere.

This Cut is Bad

Especially if this is to be worn in a place that houses a community that might give me backlash for existing, the cut of this dress doesn’t exactly scream “if I wear this, I will be safe and comfortable.” In my own experience, dresses that effectively only cover the torso tend to attract more uncomfortable gazes or worse if you’re not in a safe space, which is pretty much the opposite of what I want in my life and again limits the dress’ utility.

Come On

Get right the fuck out of town with that titty zipper. Nothing is worse than a titty window that won’t even commit to being a titty window (which isn’t featured on the final product, but still, make up your mind). From a fit standpoint, it’s either going to crush my tits or make them look too small for the cut. Realistically, you would need an Aristotelian golden mean of titty size to make a titty zipper work and you can quote me on that.

And don’t get me started about the potential for bad bra/zipper lines because I so do not have time to worry about panty lines on my chest when my eyes already went to hell the first time I looked at the damn thing. How dare you not consider the comfort and well-being of my titties before you blatantly sexualize them.

Speaking of My Eyes Going to Hell

The overall pattern layout of the dress very much makes it look like someone who wanted to practice modding stretched the skin of a chair over the generic asset of a dress, which in no way makes me want to cloth myself in what I just described. To be more blunt, the combination of the cut and patterning looks like a NASCAR ran over a field hockey player so hard it made a dress.

Cranium Apparel—did you ask women if they were looking for esports dresses or did you just make a dress “esports” and assume women would want it?

All in all, I have to say I don’t see a lot of reason to buy this particular dress. Although, I will say, thank you for giving the dress pockets. Pocket inclusion is like catnip for people who wear dresses. Regretfully, the titty zipper does negate the pocket appeal in this case.

Suggestions for Cranium Apparel (and Others)

Fellow Punished Backlog contributor Genesis Sandoval and I will briefly discuss our thoughts on the dress and give some suggestions for articles of clothing we might actually want.

Anna: So Genesis, I’d love to get your general reaction to this whole thing. How do you feel about this dress?

Genesis: When I first heard about this whole situation, I just laughed. I honestly thought it was fake because it reads exactly like a meme. But, unfortunately, this dress is a reality. I love dresses, but they are hella impractical in most situations. And they don’t seem that practical in casual gaming situations, let alone esports. Femininity is awesome, and embracing it is even better, but femininity often receives backlash within communities like esports. And I don’t think “a new identity for female gamers” through a $53 dress will change that overnight. I appreciate the company trying to show support for women, and the good intentions are definitely there, but the impact it left on women and dress-wearing gamers in general was negative to say the least.

A: Couldn’t agree more. Whether or not this dress set out to be a joke, it sure did become one.

So, I personally don’t have a huge amount of games-related clothing, but I have been putting an effort into getting more lately. After all, I kinda have a permanent Skyrim reference on me, but that’s another story. If I were an esports apparel outfitter and I wanted to design something more female-demographic-oriented, I would’ve started by asking consumers what they want with a long jersey à la this one from Adidas.

It’s dress-like, but it’s much more casual. You could wear it as is, with leggings, maybe even with a cute jacket, or just sleep in it honestly. As a former hockey player, I know the comfort of an oversized sports jersey very well, and this would definitely do the trick. 

The cut and material lend themselves to a sporty design easily, too, so it might look less like a chair. Is it my style? No. But I feel like, on the very basic level of “a dress but make it esports,” this would be better than Cranium Apparel’s entry.

Genesis, how do you feel about my suggestion and do you have any of your own? They definitely don’t have to be dress suggestions; this is just the first thing I thought of when I saw the original dress.

G: I’m really into the idea of creating something like the long jersey already done by Adidas, if that’s what women want in the first place. If Cranium Apparel wants to stick with the dress idea, I think t-shirt dresses are the way to go. They’re comfortable, have plenty of cute designs, and they’re easy to dress up or dress down.

I don’t own much gaming-related clothing either except for a few The Legend of Zelda shirts and some Vans from their Nintendo collection. Honestly, I’m really just down for some shirts and jerseys in a women’s cut. Unisex really only can go so far, and it feels like they’re better fitted to men than women, at least in my experience. And, obviously, a women’s clothing line for esports doesn’t have to scream, “This is for girls.” Joggers are comfortable and a casual alternative to something like jeans that people really love. From a stylistic standpoint, I think it’d be fun to see something like esport crop tops. But again, like you mentioned, an article of clothing like a crop top wouldn’t go over well in terms of safety within a toxic community. In a perfect world, maybe. I’m glad the company tried to take a step in the right direction, and I hope they’ll try to listen to what women and other feminine people want in the future, which it looks like they might.

A:  Couldn’t agree more about the crop top. I really want to get into them and a gaming crop top would be great, but I don’t know where I’d wear them, exactly. Also, wholehearted agreement that apparel aimed at a female demographic doesn’t have to shoot gender waves at you. It really just has to fit, not look terrible, and not be degrading, honestly.

And with that, I think we can hope for more considerate design choices in the future.

Thanks for reading this article about an article of clothing that I’m kinda mad about. Do you know what else makes me kinda mad? The butts of male protagonists in games (or lack thereof). And that article might cheer you up a little more than this one, so here’s a link. I also wrote about the animation in Cuphead and about the trailer for The Elder Scrolls VI, if you want to read something I’m not slightly mad about.