Zara Genderless Clothing Line 2016 - Non Binary It's not the first time Zara's parent company, Inditex, has added genderless clothing to its inventory: Inditex-ownedPull&Bear has offered unisex apparel in past seasons, according to Harper's Bazaar Spain. Recently, more and more retailers have dabbled in gender-free offerings. Last year, British department store Selfridges introduced a pop-up called Agender at both its London flagship and online. Stateside, Target announced a few months later that it would remove any gender-specific signage and colours from its children's bedding and toy sections. (Also, let's not forget that American Apparel has stocked unisex inventory for quite some time.) Zara's announcement represents a huge step in the mainstream fashion space.
Jaden Smith for Louis Vuitton: The New Man in a Skirt - The New York Times But whatever the motivation of both parties, and however pure (or not), the result has its own substance. It’s not unisex. It’s not gender neutral or gender bending or gender free or any of the other expressions we’ve been using to describe the current clothes-fluid moment, because it is, in fact, entirely gendered, at least going by traditional definitions of men’s versus women’s clothing. The clothes and their conceptual allegiance have not changed at all. And therein lies the rub. But while runways, even in the age of social media, are largely for the fashion-centric few, global ad campaigns have a wider reach. That could be overstating the matter, but there’s no question clothes are one way we order the world. How will we know what floors to shop on? The fear of semiological chaos (and the force of historical convention) explains in part why clothing norms have held on so long.
Agender - The Concept Store | selfridges.com As part of Agender, Selfridges is creating a unique genderless shopping experience across fashion, accessories and beauty. The Concept Space, devised by renowned designer Faye Toogood, is an environment in which you are given the freedom to transcend notions of 'his' and 'hers', as you simply find your most desired item by colour, fit and style. Including exclusive designs by both world-renowned and upcoming designers, complemented by exciting beauty launches, these products mark a significant turning point in the way we think about fashion, beauty and style. Welcome to the future of genderless shopping. What does 'agender' mean to you? Agender literally means 'without gender', but it also suggests a plan of action or an ideological goal. Tell us about the space you've designed in store. Why do you think this campaign feels right for now? We are increasingly aware that gender is not a simple binary, yet clothing is still marketed along those lines.
Gender-neutral Cosmetics Following the creation of unisex collections in the fashion industry, the cosmetics sector has also begun to blur the concept of gender. Like fashion and its trends, beauty—a gender-specific sector if there ever was one—is now redefining its borders to expand its offer. Some brands, however, didn’t wait for the question of gender to become a social phenomenon before exploring it. The most obvious of these is Calvin Klein with its iconic fragrance ”CK One” that shook up the gender codes in the Nineties, followed by others like Kiehl’s, Byredo, Aesop (with its Marrakech and Tacit fragrances), Verso, Absolution and Malin Goetz. This “gender-less” trend as applied to beauty is expressed in many ways and can take on many forms: Gender-neutral Packaging The time has come to celebrate aesthetics that transcend gender differences: neutral and minimalist packaging doesn’t target either sex and promotes a more mixed offer. S.W. Benefits First Toward Plural Retailing?
Is the Future of Fashion Genderless? Men in womenswear and women in menswear is nothing new, but clothing has taken a turn toward a less gendered appearance of late. And it’s not just avant-garde designers—even Zara has a unisex collection called Ungendered. At the same time, however, the move toward genderless fashion has occurred as growth in menswear outpaced womenswear: a recent Fashionbi report revealed that menswear sales grew 1.9% in 2015, compared to 1.6% growth in womenswear. “From a business standpoint, a move toward genderless categorizations for clothing has been a boon for the menswear market, which already possesses a lot of other pieces with a cross-gender appeal, like a drop-shoulder crewneck sweatshirt, for example,” said Jian DeLeon, senior menswear editor at WGSN, moderating a panel discussion last week at the trend forecaster’s Futures Conference. Case in point: oversized suit jackets and men’s shirts were big at the Spring/Summer 2017 women’s shows. “People do want to feel like they have a gender.
Should there be gender in the beauty industry? The world of beauty is a big and diverse one. There are many lotions, potions, beauty brands, up and coming cosmetic lines and the industry is simply getting bigger and bigger. Over the past decade or so, it seems that more men have become open about using and purchasing beauty products. So much so that many beauty brands and companies have made sections featuring products solely targeted towards men. In a society that’s said to be open-minded and equal, is this a step to equality or a step back? (MALIN+GOETZ) is one beauty company that do not believe in stereotyping genders and basing their products on gender. Speaking about their customer base, they then go on to say that their customers ‘are smart, savvy, sophisticated consumers that seek quality and results. Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics is another company which strives to have no gender attachment to its product range. Some men will only buy products labelled ‘men’ or ‘male’, and for them those products might be all they need.
Is Gender-Neutral Clothing the Future of Fashion? In London last week, Selfridges, the British department store, opened Agender, a three-story pop-up shop devoted to gender-neutral clothing. Billed as “a fashion exploration of the masculine, the feminine and the interplay—or the blur—found in between” and featuring more than 40 brands, Agender is an unprecedented investment by a major retailer in the idea of androgyny. But is it simply a seasonal marketing gimmick? Or does it represent a new element of the fashion industry’s future? Selfridges is not the first big brand to explore gender-neutral clothing. In the last year, Gucci, Prada, Givenchy, and YSL were among the fashion houses that introduced gender-bending collections—often using a mix of male and female models in advertisements. One example is American Apparel, which this fall plans to introduce several gender-neutral pieces. It is those customers—young, trend-conscious but not trend-controlled, and liberated by the Internet—who are demanding a less rigid fashion future.
Why Women Are Walking the Men’s Runways This Season What’s the point of showing women’s clothes to men? I generalize, of course—not everyone in the audience at the men’s shows is male—but, look! Lots and lots of girls have been walking runways in London and Milan these past couple of weeks, in the round of collections that are (ostensibly) aimed at showing the chaps of the menswear industry what they might like to wear, come spring 2016. Regard! Miuccia Prada liberally studded her men’s collection with female models yesterday afternoon. Out of 51 looks, 20 were a compilation of super-compelling, wacky, girls’ outfits—a layered pile-up of sweaters with rocket and rabbit motifs, short sequin shifts, vintage-y sport stripes, skirts with collaged panels going this way and that: in all, Mrs. I also spotted women insurgents on London runways: Nasir Mazhar’s total-black looks, Burberry girls in lace dresses and trench coats, Binx Walton walking in Stuart Vevers’s Coach men’s show, Craig Green putting out his first examples of female attire.
Will Genderless Fashion Change Retail? | Intelligence | BoF (L-R) Raf Simons Menswear Spring/Summer 2014, Gucci Menswear Autumn/Winter 2015, J.W Anderson Menswear Spring/Summer 2014 | Source: Indigital LONDON, United Kingdom — Alessandro Michele’s womenswear debut for Gucci was, by far, the most anticipated show of Milan Fashion Week. How would Michele attempt to re-reinvigorate Kering’s ailing cash cow, after chief executive François-Henri Pinault said in December that the brand needed a fresh point of view and more daring shows? The answer: bookish, pussy-bow wearing boys and girls, sharing both the runway and the same tailoring, shoulder-length locks and cut-glass cheekbones. Indeed, the show eradicated the last vestiges of Gucci’s hyper-sexualized Tom Ford era, which had, at times, chimed within Frida Giannini’s vision for the brand. Michele is not alone in his exploration of what it means to clothe both sexes in a time when gender stereotypes read as traditional, even archaic. But will genderless work at retail? Perhaps not.
How Genderless Dressing is More Than a Trend Fashion Week is, of course, when designers present their new collections to the world and with that their interpretations of the trends for the coming seasons. Except this time things were different. The runways of recent have been distinctly more androgynous than we have seen before. In fact, this new movement goes beyond androgyny, which implies clothing that is somewhat gender-neutral. This development is more than a trend; it is evolution. Clothing that is specifically male or female is a relatively new and largely Western-centric phenomenon. Although awareness and tolerance for non-gender conformity is on the rise, there is undeniably still a long way to go before the average consumer is ready for genderless clothing, which still remains largely relegated to the runway. However, the underlying desire of genderless fashion is not to completely merge the sexes into one homogeneous mass though, but rather to eradicate the boundaries that limit us in what we choose to wear. Related
John Lewis gender neutral clothing labels faces public backlash | The Independent Over the weekend, John Lewis announced that they would no longer use “boys” and “girls” labels on children’s clothing. The progressive move was praised by many customers, who were happy to see a major retailer recognising the complexities of gender. But that didn't stop an army of angry Twitter users - who find themselves triggered by change - doing their best to pick fault with John Lewis' decision. “You have let us all down John Lewis, if only people stopped pandering to the PC brigade. “John Lewis’s introduction of ‘gender neutral’ kids clothes is a worrying sign of the times. Some expressed their horror at the thought of dressing their children in gender neutral clothing. “This John Lewis thing is pure shi*te, my child is a boy and will be dressed as a boy…rugby tops, polo shirts, jeans..trainers etc..” Even Piers Morgan weighed in on the debate, writing “Britain is going officially bonkers” in a tweet that has been liked over 20,000 times. “Finally finally Finally! Reuse content