Gender Neutral Fashion Wave Sweeping The Globe

Is Fashion Heading For A Gender Neutral Revolution?

Despite growing awareness around the world of gender fluidity, there are industries that lag behind. The fashion industry is still binary with designs.

Like it or not, fashion is a profoundly important part of our lives. The clothing you wear is a declaration of who you are, no matter where you go, and what you do. If you happen to be wearing the hottest fashion lines from Paris, or a few items thrown together from a local thrift shop, the items you’ve chosen are going to impact how the world sees you.

But fashion goes beyond this, and is being seen in a whole new light. A number of fashion brands are taking a big step, and offering unisex clothing items that don’t fit into the standard binary categories. With the LGBTQ community having asked for gender-neutral clothing for years, the answers are finally coming. But just how far reaching an impact will this have, and what could it mean for the fashion industry of the future?

Beyond Fashion Norms

The vast majority of clothing stores across the globe are still divided into very distinct male and female departments. This is the accepted norm of the fashion world, with designers specifically designing each item of clothing to fit into one category or the other. But the new trend sweeping the globe is a blurring of these distinct lines, and allowing aspects of one to cross over into the other, and vice versa.

A number of popular brands have already started experimenting; with Alessandro Michele, Raf Simons and Rick Owens of world-renowned luxury brand Gucci pushing what has commonly been the accepted standard. Male models on the catwalks are wearing skirts, although it can be argued that skirts were already a thing in Scotland a long time ago. The point being that what was once separate is now being mixed, and it seems to speak of an interesting future for the general world of fashion. At least to some extent.

A Filter Down Effect

Although many will obviously stick to the more standard binary designs of fashion, the unisex and genderless articles of clothing are very likely to filter down, and change the core of fashion in the long term. Given that trends change drastically regardless, with hot fashion being here today, gone tomorrow, and what was trendy today being seen as outrageous just a decade or two later, unisex designs are almost certainly likely to be adopted across the board, and have a long lasting impact.

In other words; unisex clothing is likely here to stay, in some form or another, and will reshape the future of fashion for everyone.

Non-Demographic

Interestingly enough and contrary to popular belief, the current trend of unisex clothing is not new. A Los Angeles based label called 69, which is run by a designer who prefers to stay anonymous and let the fashion speak for itself, released unisex clothing as far back as 2014. Though as much buzz was not heard back then, simply because the items were not specifically labelled as being gender fluid, or non-demographic, as the designer known as 69 prefers to call it.

Today, however, with the buzz words entering into the mainstream, a number of brands have popped up, specialising in clothing that may be worn by both genders. Some of these brands include Merwe Mode, Not Equal, Mevrou & Co, Tilly and William, and many more.

It remains to be seen exactly how much of an impact the new fashion trend will have, how mainstream it will become, and how far reaching the influence will be. For the time being, at the very least, everyone can look forward to exploring a new, interesting world of fashion, no matter who they are, and what they prefer.