By Alexa Picaulima
Anyone going through their closet for a special occasion must be faced with the inevitable dilemma of what to wear. Though a standard suit or dress would seemingly fit the bill, sometimes you don’t feel as though society’s expected attire of outfit was going to cut it – especially when you are really androgynous on the inside. A question would then pop up into your mind, “Am I going to sacrifice my comfort for everyone else’s or am I going to make sure I’m comfortable in my own skin?”
While this generation thinks they invented gender fluidity, it is a fact that the world did it harder, stronger, and louder back in the ‘70s. Although borrowing fashion from the opposite sex is hardly a new premise, it is a concept that’s really taken hold in recent seasons. A lot of brands today adopt this casting direction – Rick Owens, Gucci, and Burberry to name a few.
During men’s fashion week in Paris in June, former Yves Saint Laurent and Ermenegildo Zegna Couture designer Stefano Pilati unveiled an all-black, 17-piece genderless and seasonless collection and offered well-tailored long sleeve dresses, as well as fishnet tights and blazer sans blouse modelled by his close friends, both men and women alike. Perhaps the strongest ensemble of his collection was a half tuxedo/half bridal gown look that closed his spring 2018 menswear show.
Fashion has always been a way of communicating one’s mood, personality, and life to the world at large. Thankfully, designers and brands always create a much-needed sanctuary for those people who have otherwise been excluded — thus, the old rules of conformity have to be continuously challenged both from an acceptance and commercial point of view.
This generation wears what they want, and now the peacocks at Gucci make it more acceptable for a man to wear his girlfriend’s floral bomber jacket or blouse. A major example of this shifts in attitudes is Jaden Smith, who posed in a leather jacket and embellished skirt in a women’s Louis Vuitton campaign last year. And even though there is definitely a breakdown of who wears what, the generation that had no voice now have a voice, and a style they can openly share.
Stores like Zara, Selfridges, and Opening Ceremony have begun offering remixed gender fluid clothing in their stores. Today, there has been a rise in the number of genderless collections, both in high-end fashion and among more mainstream retailers like H&M, which launched its first unisex collection earlier this year. But only to a point, because you don’t see skirts for men as much as you see trousers for women.
Today, there are people who do not identify themselves with the gender they were assigned at birth, so it makes sense that fashion is hitting back with a strong gender-fluid showing. The idea of genderless clothing is spreading out because we should all be able to wear whatever we feel most comfortable in, from a physical and fashion standpoint. Also, matching how you feel inside to your outward expression shouldn’t be frowned on.
Both sexes should be in touch with both their feminine and masculine sides. Why are only women allowed to that luxury? To this day, people still ask questions like, ‘Are you a boy or a girl? How do you identify? Are you transitioning?’ all because of what someone is wearing. But the truth is that the generations that are coming up now, the ones who are going to be in charge, care less and less. They just want you to be you.
