Gender neutral
IT USED to be the case that blue was for boys and pink for girls. But times have changed and growing numbers of clothing manufacturers are discarding oldfashioned man-woman garment rules and instead designing products that are genderless.
“Entire product lines are being designed according to considerations of interest and function,” says Verena Muntschick from the trend-research company Zukunftsinstitut in Frankfurt.
“You won’t visit a department store and have to decide any more whether to go to the men’s or women’s department.”
The British chain store Selfridges took this concept on board at the beginning of the year and test-launched its gender-neutral Agender fashion department.
“Instead of talking about unisex, I would start speaking about no-sex, because products are no longer about gender but about the person,” says the trend scout.
The brand & Other Stories was launched by Swedish clothing company H&M in 2013. It has gone further than other companies by conceiving its own transgender collection. Both clothing and models look gender non-specific.
“That’s a lifestyle trend that has its origins in developments in society,” says Andreas Bauer from the consulting firm Roland Berger.
Recently British actress Emma Watson made an appeal for more equality in fashion. And there has been a discussion in the US for some time on the role of forced gender clichés such as blue for baby boys and pink for infant girls in the retail industry.
Several start-up fashion companies are doing business based on countering stereotypes.
Genderless clothing presents further advantages for business when it comes to advertising “because the homogenous target groups of men and women no longer exist”, says Muntschick.
Another consideration is that some people just don’t see themselves reflected in genderspecific advertising campaigns.
“Basically we can say it’s an expanding market,” says Bauer. “If a product is made for everyone, that also has benefits when it comes to production costs.”
But not all garments can be tailored to be worn by both sexes.
“There are still considerable barriers for the wider market. Men simply don’t fit into clothing sized for women,” says Bauer.
That applies to sporting articles which rely heavily on showing off a body to its best or to clothing that has functions specifically designed for a man or woman.
The unisex department at Selfridges is no longer genderless. “That was a six-week experiment,” said Selfridges.
The firm is developing ideas on how to continue with the concept. The Zukunftsinstitut in Frankfurt believes, however, that there is a widespread unsatisfied demand for genderless clothing.
“Shoppers shouldn’t be made to feel embarrassed about browsing or buying products that are supposedly inappropriate,” it explains. – dpa