Emma D’Arcy aka Rhaenyra has spoken about their evolving relationship with clothing, gender, and identity in a new interview for Beauty Papers Issue 14, titled “Unbound.”
No longer a certificate
The House of the Dragon actor, who is non-binary and masc-leaning, described a past sense of fragility around clothes.
“As a masc-leaning non-binary person, I used to experience a real fragility when it came to the clothes I wore — as if my clothing were a certificate that confirmed and proved my gender.”
D’Arcy further added:
“I’m delighted to say that I don’t feel that way anymore. I am what I am regardless of the dressing!”
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They added that this shift made the Beauty Papers shoot enjoyable.
“It was fun for me to put on a mix of masculine and feminine characters during this shoot, and to let the clothes and styling inform me of these people’s nature and personality.”
Dressing as play
D’Arcy framed the process as “character speed-dating.” Unlike their usual lengthy preparation for acting roles, the shoot moved quickly:
“It was refreshing to operate on the fly — meeting characters hurriedly via a patterned jumper or a little silk scarf. There’s so much information available in clothing, hair and makeup.”
They see dressing up as an act of play and liberation:
“If our clothing is the visual language we use to communicate our identity, our status and culture, playing dress-up temporarily frees us from our own symbology and lets us experiment with a different set of signifiers.”
Credits: Beauty Papers
On beauty, ambiguity, and categorisation
Emma D’Arcy said “beauty” is not a word they use for themselves. Growing up, they viewed beauty standards as “a trap that held, primarily women, captive” and still see them as “a mechanism of patriarchal control.”
They noted that the more barriers people face to simply leaving the house, the easier it becomes for those free of those standards to hold power.
On identity labels more broadly, D’Arcy described an ongoing tension between the usefulness of language and the limits of categorisation. They said language is supposed to work for us and not the other way around.
The interview sits within Beauty Papers Issue 14’s larger theme of being “unbound:” Exploring freedom of transformation, fluidity, and the power of play beyond fixed definitions.
