Our sexual orientation can be different gay, bi, lesbian or queer but our gender remains the same we born with. Gender Fluidity – a term in 2020 is hardly unknown. There is a whole spectrum of non-binary genders that exist; In 2017 the British government conducted a study in which they found that 6.6% of citizens identify themselves as non-binary. Non-Binary or gender fluid peoples don’t like labels, they prefer calling themselves as “they” and “them”. There are many people including celebrities who are not into labels and prefer to dress as they feel, not associating their clothes with a gender.
Mainstream celebrities such as Ezra Miller, Cody Fern, Miley Cyrus, etc have come out with the fact that they too think they lie somewhere between man and women or a mix of both.
Harry Styles’s outfit in Met Gala 2019 can be called more of a feminine look. He wore Gucci and walked with Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele. Since Alessandro has stepped in as Creative Director, Gucci has changed in a major way. Everyone thought that the new men’s collection will be full of masculinity and testosterone but it turned out the complete opposite -clothes were full of neutral looks, floral colour, chiffon lace shirts even male models were of soft androgynous looks. This is something this house has never done, it was a risk taken by the designer and turned out in his favours. Their collection was very well praised by the critics and did very well in the season.
Alok V Menon a social media influencer and LGBTQ rights activist who identifies as non-binary transfeminine said on #BoFVOICES 2019 “When people ask me are you a boy or a girl? I say no, but what I can tell you is my 5’Oclock shadow is built-in contour and my body hair is a testament to the fact that I am so fabulous, my body found a way to accessorize itself” Alok is a strong advocate on genderless clothing and even started an own clothing line ALOK to cater those who are just trying to be themselves rather than wearing gender-based outfits Alok says-there are no clothes for people like me so I made my own. As of now, they have designed 3 gender-neutral fashion collections.
Alok’s Instagram is filled with posts of them wearing a dress with full-body hair or a saree with a beard. This is how genderless clothing should be, a concept that sees a garment not being assigned to a specified gender when designed.
Every time there is a long debate over how a person should express his/her sexuality in terms of clothing? Unisex clothing was the only answer fashion retail could provide.
Many emerging designers are now developing clothes to cater to non-binary genders. One that caught my attention was Charles Jeffrey Loverboy-28years old Scottish grew up in Glasgow. He started his label in 2015 and quickly became a poster boy to break gender norm barriers in the fashion industry. He debuted his collection London Fashion Week featuring a man wearing a miniskirt, females in suits, and closing the show with a man with a wedding gown. His show was rewarded as the best show of the season and winning an emerging talent award at the fashion awards by none other than John Galliano himself.
In India, Sumiran Kabir Sharma an aspiring designer always struggled to find clothes that suit his taste and his small size, so he launched his own genderless label Anaam, In 2018 he showcased his collection at Lakme Fashion Week model were seen wearing shoes with slogans written on it such as-“poverty, homophobia” etc. Sumairan’s show out of all was one of the most compelling ones and was hugely appreciated. Besides that, Actor Ranveer Singh is often seen wearing a skirt, over the top garments on many public events, even wearing a nose ring on the cover of L’officiel. For me, he is the first person to introduced gender-fluid clothing into mainstream Indian media.
See our Indian clothes and their aesthetics –they were always genderless, the dhoti for men and saree for women, Indian mythology says it all, dhotis were worn by both men and women. Many think this trend is something that is new in the market but our ancestors have been doing it from an early age.
During the late 80’s a bunch of misfits in New York City formed their group called Club Kids and started going to nightclubs to perform and party, Clubs Kids was like a revolutionary movement, members were known for their sexually fluid gender, outrageous, wild, DIY(Do It Yourself) outfits. Soon many notable personalities such as singer Bjorkwere seen partying with the members. They became the face of a new fashion movement. It was an underground party culture. They pushed the boundaries of queer aesthetics. Club Kids’ influence can be seen in many drag queen performances like Sasha Velour to name a few. They promoted a new fashion culture- a culture of the avant-garde, extremely imaginative, and to be honest much more creative than any looks the 90’s ever has seen.
Their impact can be seen on many occasions such as Rupaul Drag Race an American reality TV series about drag queen where a whole segment was dedicated to introducing millennials to the Club Kid era. Some notable members of Club Kid are Amanda Lapore, Susanne Bartsch and many more.
Due to the huge popularity of gender fluidity in the market, many designers such as Tom Ford and Gucci have decided to merge both men’s and women’s collections.