FLUID IDENTITY

Is the future of fashion *really* genderless?

- NIDA NAEEM

A banger of a tweet that lives in my head rent-free goes: All clothing is unisex if you stop being a little b***h about it.

Easy chuckle aside, it’s also an approachable jumping-off point for more nuanced reflections on the assigned gender of clothes, whom this gendering really serves, and what it means to challenge the binary versus to abandon it altogether.

The times dictate that fitting into neat little boxes is no longer aspirational – gender expression is more flexible than ever, and designers, stylists, models, and creatives of all stripes are reckoning with the vision of a genderless fashion future. But how are they finding their footing in an industry still primarily defined by the contours of womenswear and menswear? When social norms, creative output, and self-perception intersect, there is no tried and tested formula.

LABELS FOR LABELS

A peculiar irony of this space is that designers attempting to move away from labels encounter more labels to define what their work isn’t. Terms like unisex, genderless, and gender-neutral are not synonymous but are used interchangeably in fashion. To differentiate one’s brand and to stand out as forward-thinking or non-conformist, it’s easy to make a beeline for buzzwords.