You’ve probably noticed there’s been quite a furore around the outfits Ezra Miller has been wearing for the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald promotional tour. Sure, his Moncler dress-cum-puffer jacket and angelic Big Bird get ups made Miller look bonkersly brilliant, but they also signified something we’ve known for some time: that the face of contemporary fashion is changing.
What Miller has done (in addition to ripping up the red carpet rule book) is cast light on the fact that it’s never been more acceptable for men to dress with more feminine flair. And it isn’t just Miller who is doing it. Jaden Smith is a stalwart for the changing times, recently shunning trousers in favour of a pleated skirt (something our very own Fashion Director Luke Day has also recently done) and even sporting a full womenswear look for Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2016 campaign. Then more recently, actor Tommy Dorfman blurred the lines when he wore a school girl skirt and blazer to the 2018 MTV Movie Awards. And to our very own GQ Men Of The Year Awards Olly Alexander wore a feather-adorned crop top.
In the past few years, the world’s more forward thinking fashion brands have become increasingly eager to attract a new, young audience which views gender with more fluidity than generations prior. Gen Z (the post millenial generation made up of people born between the mid Nineties and the early Noughties) is paving the way for the belief that gender is simply an outmoded construct. A proportion of the Instagram generation has flooded the platform with protests against gender boundaries, instead promoting non-binary attitudes. #GenderNeutral so far has been used over 380,000 times and there are even accounts, such as @RasisingZoomer, detailing the bringing up of a gender-neutral baby. And the fashion industry is answering.
Relatively new labels such as Charles Jeffrey Loverboy and Eckhaus Latta regularly show seasonal collections with blur gender binaries. GQ’s Breakthrough Designer Of The Year Jeffrey's SS'19 menswear collection, for instance, would have been just as at home during women’s fashion week. Think tartan skirt-suits and candy cane knee-high socks designed for men.
And it isn’t just new brands that are highlighting the global appetite for gender-neutral clothing, either. There has been a breakdown of the traditional showing of men’s and women’s collections at the top, too. Burberry, JW Anderson and Dolce & Gabbana each made the decision to stage co-ed shows, eschewing the binary presentation model.
Gucci, founded in 1921, is a lynchpin brand in the gender-free movement. With Alessandro Michele at its helm, Gucci’s catwalk shows cross-pollinate across genders and he has female models wearing pieces from the men’s collections and vice versa, which Michele explains “seems only natural... it’s the way I see the world.” Then there’s the clothes themselves – pussy-bow blouses, patent leather boots reminiscent of Dorothys, thigh-skimming silky shorts and handbags – all for men.
But is it working? Are these brands selling more clothes as a consequence? Just last quarter Gucci retained the top spot as the hottest brand in the world according to the Lyst Index. Why? Because the blurred lines of Gucci’s clothing is exactly what the boundary-breaking Insta-generation is after. Senior menswear buyer at Browns, Thom Scherdel, explains: “The world is more open to the idea of it now and that’s a wonderful thing. We run men’s and women’s on the same rails in our store – it doesn’t mean all guys are wearing dresses, but it does give them a better understanding of what the total landscape looks like. Designers have been flirting with gender neutrality since time begun, but that was more headline grabbing than truly servicing their clientele. Now the rules aren’t there so the opportunity to experiment with silhouettes and shapes is.”
And this ethos being present within brands has caused a knock-on effect in the shops. Two years ago Selfridges launched Agender, a shopping space where customers could buy clothes which transcend the notion of “his” and “hers”. Accessories came in white, unmarked boxes, while customers could also get their hands on unisex Stan Smiths by Adidas, hoodies by Hood By Air. Clothing is logo-free, as to avoid any notion of gender. “We were seeing men shopping on the women’s floor and vice versa,” explained womenswear buying manager Heather Gramston. And the same thing is happening on the high street. Spring Summer 2016 saw Zara present Ungendered, a line of unisex separates from jeans to hoodies. And just last month ASOS unveiled Collusion, a unisex, coming-of-age brand that has been designed by Gen-Z, for Gen-Z.
But while we aren’t necessarily expecting you to don a skirt-cum-sarong a la David Beckham anytime soon, all the signs are pointing towards a more gender-fluid attitude across fashion. And with it, thus far, has come a great deal positivity. For instance, Charles Jeffrey's gender-bending designs have so far seen him win not only GQ's Breakthrough Designer of the Year award, but also British Emerging Talent prize at the 2017 Fashion Awards, as well as a nod in the LVMH Prize.
With the men’s Autumn/Winter 2019 shows just under two months away, it’ll be interesting to see how far a shift towards womenswear designers dare to make (and how the customer - that’s you - will respond). As GQ Style Senior Fashion Editor Gary Armstrong puts it, “Flamboyance and femininity has been intrinsically linked with menswear, from Louis XIV ostentatious frills and armour, to Mick Jagger’s fur and peacocking, to Michele’s vision of Gucci. The look has come full circle. Don’t be scared – in the words of Shania Twain, 'Man, I Feel Like a Woman!'”
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