One vibe to rule them all

Androgynous style is finally for every shape, every colour of the rainbow and every occasion (almost). Here's the 2024 update

- Noor Anand Chawla

It might take a bit of searching, but YouTube still has them – grainy videos from 2007, featuring notyet-influencers offering tips on, “how to dress androgynous, you guys!” The inspiration is clear: Cate Blanchett, playing a young Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, which released that year. It’s a hard style to pull off. Dylan and Blanchett are both bony. The look is all hard angles, dark glasses, scowl, slim cigarette and head of unkempt hair.

But the times, they are a-changin’. Modern androgynous fashion is no longer confined to making lanky women look like lanky men. Gender-fluid dressing is about men, women and non-binary folks across diverse body types finding common fashion ground. There’s room for colour, curves, a bit of flounce, and, finally, it’s part of the mainstream.

Pranav Misra, co-founder and CEO of Huemn; Shweta Kapur, founder and creative director of 431-88; and Abhishek Paatni, principal aggregator at online fashion store NoughtOne break down what androgynous dressing looks like today. Don’t think twice, it’s all right.