Androgynous Fashion Is For Everyone
Observations - Monday, 14 September 2015 Men and women want genderless collections When designer Rad Hourani sent a fleet of male and female models in silver masks down the catwalk in gender-neutral clothing at his Spring/Summer 2014 couture show, he caused quite a stir. This was the first time unisex clothing had been shown at a couture fashion show. It wasn t, however, the first instance of fashion disregarding gender; a number of designers, both emerging and established, have recently experimented with gender in various ways. Consider how British designer JW Anderson has challenged the conformity of male clothing by creating menswear with exposed shoulders, knee-length tops, and even the occasional leather dress. Or how designer brands like Raf Simons and Prada both opted for a mix of male and female models at their menswear shows at Paris Fashion Week this year. Gucci used mixed models to show its distinctly feminine menswear in Milan last year, while Saint Laurent, under creative director Hedi Slimane, has produced menswear for both genders, made in smaller sizes for women. Publications from the New York Times to the Huffington Post are drawing attention to this trend it seems as though unisex is having a fashion moment. Everyone s trying to do it, observes freelance fashion writer Dean Kissick. So how did we get here? Why is the fashion world, which previously split its presentation of womenswear and menswear, now coalescing under one ambiguous-gender banner? This can partly be explained by aesthetics (we re talking fashion, after all). A growing section of today s fashion consumers now prefer to dress more simply, so the details and embellishments that typically help differentiate womenswear from menswear are less evident. Fashion brands such as Acne which produce clothing in simple cuts and muted colours are on the rise. The clean shapes and more minimalist approach to dressing which is bubbling through the industry have relaxed traditional dressing rules, says Chris Hobbs, style editor at luxury fashion retailer Matches Fashion. Alongside this hunger for minimalism there has also been a change in purchasing habits. Consumers have, for the past few years, become increasingly comfortable with buying and wearing items originally intended for the opposite sex. Just look at the swathes of men who traipsed into female denim departments in search of the skinny look during the noughties. Or how in the past few years the
relaxed-fit boyfriend jean, which belongs to or appears to belong to their other half has become part of women s fashion vocabulary. This particular shift directly inspired London-based denim label Bethnals, one of a number of new unisex brands. Head designer Melissa Clement focuses on quality rather than specific cuts for men or women. I ve been drawn in by the similarities of men s and women s jeans, with women buying into the boyfriend jean, for instance, or men squeezing into their girlfriend s skinny jeans to get the drainpipe look, says Clement. There really is a blur in boundaries for styles. Agnese Narnicka, designer of unisex clothing brand One Wolf, based in Latvia, was also inspired to create her gender-neutral clothing by observing similar shopping habits. Often women cannot find clothing that suits them in the selection of women s clothing, but find it on the shelves of the men s department, and vice versa she says.
The clean shapes and more minimalist approach to dressing which is bubbling through the fashion industry have relaxed traditional dress rules
Unisex purchasing is more than just a way to achieve an of-the-moment style that happens to be borrowed from the opposite sex. There s a deeper cultural change in play here. Sara Weston has noticed this. Her London-based brand, SJW clothing, launched in 2013, makes clothes for both genders. But while SJW menswear looks like menswear, so does its womenswear. Weston has taken classic male staples such as duffel coats, wool blazers and baseball jackets and cut them to fit feminine silhouettes. We ve been brought up in cultures where the men are strong heroes, tough and can t show weakness, and this is really reflected in how menswear has developed, says Weston. Womenswear is traditionally more whimsical and about frills and curves, reflecting what has defined femininity. But not all modern women are like that. We also want to put on a pair of high-waisted, pleated trousers that are strong, cool and minimalist. It s not about gender any more, it s about how you feel as a person on that spectrum of what is known as boy and girl. It s a trend that s seeing fashion consumers, previously constrained by gender divisions, buy into brands that experiment within this gender spectrum. Unisex style is like a cultural mirror, says One Wolf s Narnicka. It shows what is currently happening in society and what s in the air. The world is moving towards equality and human sincerity, not differentiating society into genders, orientations or races. Every fashion movement owes a debt to the style icons that help fuel it. Genderless fashion has its fair share, which helps to legitimise people wishing to free themselves from classic gender dressing. Kanye West, for instance, a male rapper, is met with only the slightest eyebrow raise when performing in a blouse by women s brand Céline. A$AP Rocky, another rapper who is known to reference fashion designers in his lyrics, regularly wears knee-length T-shirts that are not dissimilar in length to a dress. Young Thug, a more underground rapper, wears ridiculous clothes and nail varnish, says Kissick. There s just a widespread acceptance of homosexuality or transgender, which would have been unthinkable even five years ago. It s huge that the biggest rappers have come out and said it s ok to be gay. A similar shift can be seen among female fashion icons, many of whom are inspiring a generation of female fashion consumers to adopt a tomboyish, grungy style, says Hobbs. It s the continuation of the 90s revival, which has dominated fashion for the past few seasons, he says. Girls have embraced the grunge aesthetic which has been ubiquitous on celebrities such as Cara Delevingne and Alexa Chung. Plaid shirts, 501s, Dr Martens and Stan Smiths have become staple items in both men s and women s wardrobes. Unisex style is like a cultural mirror. It shows what is currently happening in society and what's in the air Various other celebrities are demonstrating some curious nuances of this movement. Justin Bieber, Harry Styles of One Direction and TV personality Joey Essex have all made audacious style choices such as lycra-tight jeans and loose-fitting tunic tops. In turn they ve inspired a generation of male teenagers to buy into a more feminine look whether they ve pro-actively chosen to or not. If you go to a town centre outside of London, you ll now see young straight men even boys without much interest in fashion dressing in super-feminine fashion such as leggings, UGG boots and being super-groomed,
says Kissick. It s the One Direction look. Feminine menswear, converging shopping habits, and a new cultural context where dressing in a way that crosses gender barriers is becoming the norm have all contributed to a new context for fashion. It s this gender-blurring spirit that has encouraged Raf Simons, JW Anderson and Prada to experiment with gender in their menswear shows, and has inspired fashion brands to rethink how they present themselves. Saint Laurent s Slimane, for example, has looked at gender ambiguity in complementary projects to his clothing lines, such as his exhibition for the brand s Psych Rock collection, where models are shot with their backs to the camera to keep their gender unknown. This has also led to entire fashion brands positioning themselves as unisex, as we ve seen with One Wolf, Bethnals and SJW. The consumers of these brands are completely at home with being unisex buyers, and are almost devoid of preconceptions of gender. Spanish designer Maria Glück, who produces unisex clothing under her brand Howl, says her customers are looking precisely for this freedom. They want to buy a style of look because they identify with it, independent of the gender of the model who wears it on the photos or fashion show, says Glück. I get orders from women for clothing worn by men in the fashion show, and men interested in garments worn by female models.
Baja East, based in New York, produces ambisexual clothing. Co-founder John Targon explains that his customers aren t looking to buy into any kind of genderless trend; they look beyond gender identities or even disregard them altogether. They aren t specifically interested in our brand because it s unisex, but because it is comfortable, flattering and fits their lifestyle, explains Targon. It s about sizing we offer size 00 to 4 and styling that takes it from man to woman and vice versa. Targon points out a modern dilemma faced by genderless brands: the vast majority of stores divide the
women s clothing from the men s, but unisex clothing needs to be in both departments. In most of the stores where we sell, the men s and women s areas are split and often our customer may not even know the same sweater is on the women s side too, he says. The move towards unisex fashion could be an issue for larger retailers unwilling to adapt or abandon the traditional in-store division between men s and women s collections, especially as larger brands are cottoning onto this new zeitgeist. In the UK, for instance, Whistles has already collaborated with Swedish raincoat manufacturer Stutterheim to produce a line of unisex outerwear. London department store Selfridges has also clocked onto the new mood, announcing Agender, a temporary unisex fashion department that opens in March 2015 with clothing by brands such as Ann Demeulemeester, Comme des Garçons and Meadham Kirchhoff. With fast-fashion stores hungry for new trends, it might not be long before gender-ambiguous clothing, or at least a watered-down version of it, is seen across all mainstream fashion retailers. I think we will see JW Anderson s influence trickle into the high street over the next few seasons, says Hobbs. Perhaps it s time for bigger retailers to consider a new third-gender department alongside men s and women s. Words by Charlotte Philby View Original: https://www.prote.in/observations/androgynous-fashion-is-for-everyones