Gender-Neutral Clothing: Bold Designs or Marketing Ploy?
In the past designers have advertised their fashions in clearly defined gender boxes: menswear and womenswear. With new technologies and social attitudes changing dramatically, the gender lines are starting to blur as unisex clothing became trendier. Not Equal is one gender-neutral brand that comes to mind. Handcrafted by Fabio Costa, each piece of clothing offers a perfect gender-bending choice tailored specifically for individual size and taste.
Image credit: Fashion Gatecrasher.
Haute couture and ready-to-wear brands have been quick to cater to the gender-neutral market. Along with Kenzo, Louis Vuitton was successful with its Spring/Summer 2016 campaign featuring Jaden Smith in gender-neutral outfits. Other labels — Hood by Air, J.W. Anderson, Gucci — have incorporated womenswear details (floral and lace motifs and chiffon blouses) into their men's designs.
Image credit: Complex UK.
Now Zara has released its own gender-neutral collection called "Ungendered". The Spanish brand's gender-neutral line — a ten-piece collection that includes T-shirts, track suits, jeans Bermuda shorts — was added to its website without any press release or public announcement. The Zara photos show men and women wearing the same outfits.
According to Harper's Bazaar Spain, Zara's parent company Inditex had already introduced genderless clothes in previous seasons, especially in Pull&Bear stores. “It's refreshing to see something as benign as a great pair of jeans or sweatpants just be a great pair of jeans or sweatpants, without being tied to normative gender descriptors,” says Anita Dolce Vita, the owner of DapperQ.
Zara's ungendered clothing. Image credit: Zara.
While some customers are excited about the trend, others claim that the "ungendered" label is simply a marketing ploy. “When will we move past this notion that genderless clothing simply = plain t-shirts/sweatpants? Why is this bold?” says Tyler Ford on his Twitter account. Another criticism is that the line does not welcome the LGTB community or people of diverse races. “So ungendered clothing means ugly sweatshirts for skinny white people?” says @concretegravity on Twitter where the line provoked a lot of commentary catalogued by Mashable.
Anita Dolce Vita says that, for some reason, masculine styles are considered to be ungendered while the female fashion is perceived as very narrowly defined and can only be appropriate for women. "What we have, then, are mainstream mass markets attempting to dictate to the queer community, as well as to the mainstream community, what queer beauty looks like," she adds.
Zara itself describes the line this way: “Ungendered is a selection of curated silhouettes enhanced by the easy and comfortable approach to basics…The launch of this capsule is a result and organically linked to our proximity with the customers.” And some really do appreciate it.
Leaving aside all the controversy, Zara's Ungendered line is a huge step away from the traditional binary offerings represented by other affordable fashion brands.
