Opinion: women can now wear the pants, except in Trump's US

We thought we'd left archaic dress codes behind in the 1930s when film star Katherine Hepburn wore trousers in 1933 as a revolutionary statement against the prevailing notion that a woman wearing pants was a sign of perversion.

In fact, at the time, women could be arrested if they wore pants in public, detained for "masquerading as men". Freud believed the desire to wear pants could be reduced to penis envy and was a sure indication of lesbianism.

Perhaps a throwback to the latter misconceptions is behind Donald Trump's instruction to the women on his staff.

A source who worked on the Trump campaign told news site Axios that the president wants women to ''dress like women" - and judging from the women closest to him, this means wearing figure-hugging skirts and dresses.

In The Hollywood Reporter Kristi Frank, a former contestant on The Apprentice , said the show's casting directors would push women to wear sexy outfits .

"They picked the shortest skirt I had for the opening when I could meet Mr Trump," she said. "They wanted us to be sexy."

As a previous owner of the Miss USA contest, Trump promised to enhance proceedings by getting "the bathing suits to be smaller and the heels to be higher".

Women have been airing their objections to the president's latest remarks on Twitter with the hashtag DressLikeAWoman, sharing pictures of professional women, from judges to astronauts to soldiers.

And our own Menswear Fashion Week in Cape Town last weekend was full of androgenous fashion. Writer Sandiso Ngubane, graced the catwalk in a Merwe Mode dress while male models throughout wore gender neutral outfits.

So while the world heads towards freedom of choice when it comes to how people dress, the US may be heading back to a time when only men got to wear the pants.