Dress and success in the arts

This study examines how Icelandic women artists use dress as a medium to construct, negotiate and communicate their creative identities within social and cultural contexts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 17 women artists in Iceland, aged 27–69, we explored dress as both artistic expression and social performance. The theoretical framework builds on Butler’s concept of gender performativity, complemented by insights from interactionist and psychological theories of self-presentation and enclothed cognition. This approach situates dress as an embodied form of meaning making through which gender and creative identity are simultaneously reproduced and resisted. Using thematic analysis, three main themes were identified; dress as identity and agency, using multiple identities as a method for creativity, and negotiating power through dress. The findings show that dress operates as a site of both empowerment and vulnerability, allowing artists to challenge gendered and cultural expectations while expressing self-confidence, creativity and artistic innovation. Moreover, generational differences were apparent revealing shifting strategies of self-presentation. Whereas older artists downplayed femininity to gain legitimacy, younger artists employed it more deliberately as a creative resource. We conclude that dress functions as a sociocultural mechanism through which artistic identity, resistance and recognition are negotiated. In this way the study contributes to a broader understanding of how performative embodiment and creative practises can advance gender equality and cultural innovation.