Genderless Fashion
April 8th, 2020 // Seeun Jeon // FW Fashion
Today, changes in gender identity and roles have become the subject of conversation, and it is still a controversial topic. Gender discrimination is not a personal problem for individual women, but a problem of organizational and cultural discrimination, ie, social and structural problems. This should be regarded as the resistance of all of us living in the present age against the inertial and social structure of discrimination that has long been firmly established from the past.
Genderless means to go beyond gender, and to go beyond identifying all genders and focus on brand characteristics that transcend gender. The difference from “Unisex” is innovation and unique. If it’s simply selling the same item to men and women, that is unisex. Genderless doesn't specify gender at all. Most marketing strategies have emphasized masculinity and femininity. In men's cosmetics, phrases such as “For man” or “For Homme” must be included, and dark colors such as blue, gray, and black are primarily used. On the other hand, in women's cosmetics, pink and red colors and floral patterns were applied.
The runway shows for many genderless looks has already been conducted in high-end brands. For example, the Louis Vuitton 2020 SS men's collection presented a runway that broke the stereotypes that were considered exclusively feminine by using a pastel tone, especially pink color and floral pattern.
In a similar example, Dior also decorated the entire fashion show in pink, and COMME des GARÇONS all went on stage with the same hairstyle and makeup, regardless of gender. In this genderless trend, social change plays a big role and people’s perceptions have to change as well.
