Given the recent widespread acceptance of gender fluidity, it appears that fashion has become more fluid too. Fashion has always broken the rules, for example by promoting underwear as outer wear, and the smart jogger. The latest breakthrough is gender neutral clothing.
Gender neutral fashion rejects the idea of masculine and feminine. This means there is no women’s section or men’s section, you can just wear what you like.
In 2017 fashion retailer John Lewis stopped labelling children’s clothes as either for boys or girls, and simply introduced a section for ‘children’. This huge step for the gender neutral approach meant clothes did not need to be boxed in anymore. The trend was apparent in the spring/summer 2019 fashion shows in which luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Maison Margiela showed off gender neutral collections.
At the Maison Margiela show in September, John Galliano launched the gender neutral fragrance Mutiny with he words: “When rules are broken collectively, communities transform into families. Like creativity, scent has no nationality, gender or creed. It speaks a universal language. It is the empathetic sentiment of solidarity through individuality”.
When I asked Isabella Harris, a fashion student at the University of the Arts London, what she thought about the trend, she said that this was nothing new. “We’ve been wearing oversized t-shirts, and men’s shirts since the beginning,” said Isabella. “Guys wear cardigans that are long. We imitate each other’s dress sense all the time. It’s just been give a label now because it’s trending. Nothing has really changed”.
But Martin Smith, a dress designer from East London who I asked the same question, completely disagreed. “I believe that there are gender norms for a reason. Men are made to be masculine, which is why they look good in clothes designed for them. Women are supposed to dress feminine. That is why we have a women’s section. I mean what woman looks good in a baggy t-shirt? If that was the case then Elie Saab would be designing baggy t-shirts for women, not dresses’.
So the jury on gender neutral clothing is still out. Some think it’s nothing new, while others think it undermines gender differences that should instead be celebrated by fashion. In my opinion both are correct. Gender specific clothing is here to stay, but so is the gender neutral look.
