Tomboy

About

Tomboy is a long-running fashion identity for feminine-bodied (cis or trans) people who dress and present in conventionally masculine ways without disclaiming femininity entirely. The wardrobe is built from menswear basics scaled to fit: oversized graphic tees, basketball shorts or relaxed denim, button-down shirts, baseball caps, sneakers (Air Force 1s, New Balance, Vans, Sambas), oversized hoodies, minimal jewellery, and minimal makeup. Tomboy style was canonised through 1990s film and music (Drew Barrymore, Aaliyah, TLC, Justine Frischmann), revived through 2010s K-pop and girlcrush styling (Amber Liu of f(x), Sandara Park), and turned into a TikTok mainstream aesthetic from 2020 via creators like Markell Washington and the broader 'sporty tomboy' moment. The look overlaps with Streetwear, with Athleisure, with K-pop tomboy styling, and with the broader 'soft-masc' lesbian fashion lineage. Mainstream brands (Aime Leon Dore, Adidas Originals, Stussy) have built collections around tomboy customers. The aesthetic deliberately sits outside traditional gender-coded fashion expectations and is frequently coded queer, though it is worn across all sexualities.

Not Androgynous — Tomboy retains feminine identification while dressing masculine, while Androgynous deliberately blurs gender markers altogether.

On platforms

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