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Gender Neutral Fashion- A Fashion Fad Or The Norm? How can we educate others on gender neutrality in fashion and how do we define it from pre-existing unisex clothing? WRITTEN BY LAUREN CAMPBELL
It may seem hard to keep up with today’s ever-moving and evolving world. With the steady increase of social media, the pace is even faster! It seems there is a new craze every week whether it be the latest app, song, celebrity “power couple” or fashion craze. We notice new hair, beauty and fashion trends every day and with this increase of social media within the last decade, it is easier than ever to gain instant access to almost anything at the tap of a finger. But with so many new trends coming and going, how are we to interpret which of these are a fad and which are to stay? The recent growth of gender neutrality has been coined as a fad by many who are not educated in the definitions behind the identification. The growth of the LGBT community identifications can also cause confusion amongst many who are not familiar with certain terms. Therefore, gender neutrality is often easily confused with the comfort of pre-existing unisex and androgynous styles. However, it is now being recognised as more than a new term for unisex, being one step further to breaking down those barriers between masculine and feminine aspects of the human recipe that are assigned to us from birth.
“[he] doesn’t see men’s clothes and women’s clothes, just sees scared
[he]
people and
”.
comfortable people
CREDITS:
Neutral fashion is not about how a man or woman wears an assigned item of clothing, it is how an item of clothing can be worn by any-being, regardless if the item was ‘created’ for a specific gender. Gender neutral fashion has catapulted into the industry on catwalks around the globe, with many designers projecting their latest seasons on both men and women. Famously portrayed by Jaden Smith who has modelled for Louis Vuitton in a gender-neutral dress, as well as promoting gender neutrality in his daily life. He believes that gender neutral fashion does not thrust any expectation onto its wearer, he
spoke out in an interview with Preview Mag about the release of his own gender-neutral clothing line, confidently stating that he has “never seen any distinction, [he] doesn’t see men’s clothes and women’s clothes, [he] just sees scared people and comfortable people”. Whilst some may see his style as a cry for attention, Smith insists that his new brand is “a place for the lost kids and everyone to go, something for them to have”. Considering the words of the teen guru, it offers more understanding of the true meaning behind gender neutral clothing, it is not to look androgynous or masculine/feminine. Neutrality is not about fitting into a box or conforming to a definition, it is about offering confidence and acceptance for anyone and everyone despite gender or physical attributes.
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Photography by Bruce Weller for Louis Vuitton
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Photo source: Unsplash.
Among many brands such as H&M, River Island and John Lewis’ Kids range, ASOS have been hugely successful in their online campaign, Collusion. ASOS and Uncommon Creative Studio co-created a clothing brand that aims to be more inclusive that other affordable brands out there. The line aims to be wearable by males, females and a range of body types, including sizes that go up six times the regular. However, Collusion tends to be targeted towards Generation Z (6- to 20-year-olds), the younger generation what they want. “Collusion presents an alternative for an audience
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who might feel excluded from the fashion industry” (‘ASOS and Uncommon break fashion conventions with inclusive clothing label’, 2018, Campaign.com). It’s great for global fashion brands such as ASOS to be providing new, innovative approach’s to new generation and old generation’s needs as the fashion landscape grows and morphs. The rise of gender neutrality aids building a more open-minded society. Even now there are more and more children’s toys and clothes also being celebrated for their gender neutrality in many high-street shops such as H&M and John Lewis. We must consider the fashion movement as the beginning of a revolution within the industry and a reprogramming within society towards gender, diversity, acceptance and confidence. As well as a celebration of the LGBT community and several rights movements, Gender Neutral clothing is more than a fashion fad, it is a celebration of human-beings, our freedom and the ability to express ourselves.
CREDITS:
A recent article in Dazed, “What fashion needs to understand about being gender neutral” (Wylie, 2018), highlights some of the key issues that a gender neural identifying individual faces day to day when shopping and interacting with those who may not understand the needs of being gender neutral. Wylie describes how even a simple shopping trip can have an impact, a clear “row of models physically separated menswear from womenswear” which also physically separated her female friend, who went straight to the women’s department, describing the disappointment at the fact that was their shared shopping experience over.
Kit Heyman is an Academic Trans Awareness Trainer who specialises in gender terminology and educates professionals on how to address individuals in the workplace using their preferred pronouns (for example, they/them/their). We talk to Kit about gender neutral clothing.
What does gender neutral fashion mean to you? For me, all clothing is gender-neutral. Our society ‘codes’ clothes as gendered in particular ways, but they’re not inherently gendered: if I wear a dress I’m not ‘dressed as a girl’, I’m just a non-binary trans man wearing something I think is aesthetically nice. How do you think gender neutrality is being defined in fashion? Sometimes it’s frustrating. Why can’t colour, or fitted clothes, be gender-neutral? I think at the root of this is the sexism, our society sees male as ‘neutral’ and female as ‘marked’, hence trousers are for men and women but dresses are only for women. See also Eddie Izzard’s reply to being accused of ‘wearing a woman’s dress’: ‘It’s not a woman’s dress, it’s my dress!’ Do you think there is still ambiguity surrounding unisex and gender neutral clothing? Is there supposed to be a difference in fashion between gender-neutral clothing and unisex clothing? If so, there’s definitely confusion as I’ve never seen these two terms be clearly distinguished. In your line of work, how do you educate others on gender neutral identities and fashion? The problem, in my opinion, is systemic sexism. Like I said earlier, our society sees male as ‘neutral’ and female as ‘marked’, hence trousers are for men and women but dresses are only for women. This is a problem for trans people: it means that if you’re signalling femininity through your clothing in a tiny little way (eg dangly earrings), people notice. But, if you want to signal masculinity you have to dress completely masculine-coded (suit, tie, short hair, not a hint of femininity). When I first came out as trans, I wanted to dress in a way that mixed male and female, to reflect my identity – but people would always call me ‘she’ if I had even a hint of feminine presentation, so I ended up wearing ties a lot!
Lauren Campbell