The chatter from the eager audience fades away into the soft strum of an acoustic guitar. The dark room is suddenly illuminated, revealing a long, rectangular runway lined with fashion bloggers, fashion critics, and celebrities in the front row. Cell phones cast a glow on the faces of fashion’s elite. As a burst of camera flashes go off, a model with long honey-blond hair sashays down the runway. In a crimson pussy bow blouse, black tailored trousers, and a statement gold belt, all eyes are on him—yes, him.
This is the beginning of Gucci’s menswear collection at Milan Fashion Week for the fall/winter 2015-16 season.
For Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele, this was his debut into the world of menswear design.
He dressed both male and female models in flowing blouses with a soft bow detailing at the neck, sheer lace shirts, and tailored suits. Male model or female model—gender was irrelevant.
This season, something is different: the clear-cut distinctions of masculinity and femininity are blurred, and Michele is said to be the unofficial leader of the industry-wide gender-bending fashion movement.
Gender fluidity is an ever-evolving gender identity, where no distinct lines of male or female exist.
At the Saint Laurent menswear show in Paris, all models, most of which were men, strutted down the catwalk in three-inch heels.
This month, Jaden Smith was named one of the faces of Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer womenswear ad campaign. Smith will appear in a three-part advertisement wearing Vuitton’s women’s attire.
Gender neutrality does not only exist in the world of high fashion.
Kristina Da Silva, a third-year neuroscience and biology student at Carleton, said she sees gender bending in fashion as a trend and a social movement.
“Fashion in itself is a form of expression. It’s just another art form,” Da Silva said. “People are . . . being more [experimental] with what they wear and how they wear it.”
Da Silva said she is hopeful about the acceptance of gender bending in everyday fashion, specifically in metropolitan areas and big cities like Ottawa.
“You can even see it now . . . in malls like [the Rideau Centre]: the differences in what men used to wear five years ago and now,” Da Silva said, “and I love it. It looks so damn good.”
She said her appreciation for the progression of men’s fashion translates to her personal style. She identifies as gender fluid and crafts her own personal style out of neutral, versatile pieces from the men’s section.
“Their clothes are so much more comfortable,” Da Silva said. “It’s simple. You get a nice pair of shoes, a nice pair of pants, a shirt and you’re done. But usually for special events, I will wear more [feminine] attire.”
When asked if this is a personal choice or an expectation because of her gender assigned at birth—female—she said, “a bit of both.”
“Sometimes I feel like I want to explore that [feminine] side a little more,” Da Silva said. “But most of the time, especially with family . . . it’s a social pressure. I’ll make an effort more for them than for myself to dress feminine.”
For Canadian unisex designer Spencer Badu, this is not just a trend or a movement; this is his life.
His up-and-coming label, S.P. Badu, combines a minimal aesthetic with a futuristic touch. He said his designs, inspired by his Ghanaian roots, represent individual expression rather than gender identification.
Badu said growing up in Ontario made him want to challenge the idea that everyone must fit into a specific box of gender and sexuality.
“When you come to Canada, there is Westernized perceptions of how males and females should dress,” Badu said. “When you go [to Ghana], all the rules are broken.”
He said he began designing before the gender-bending trend became popular because “it just felt right.”
“I’m naturally a rebel,” Badu said. “I was more interested in challenging everybody [as] opposed to one group of people who would flock to [my brand].”
He said he is optimistic about the fashion industry fully embracing blurred gender lines and is confident with the longevity of S.P. Badu.
“This is something that I am always going to do, whether it is a trend or not. It is a way of life. There is always going to be a person who doesn’t identify with a certain gender or doesn’t really follow the rules that are perceived for male or female.”
Elliott Dunstan, a second-year Greek and Roman studies student at Carleton, is that person. He identifies as gender non-binary: someone who does not identify as a man or a woman.
“Oddly enough, I still think it’s very binary,” said Dunstan, when asked of his overall impressions of this gender fluidity on the runways. “It is still playing very much into the thin, white, androgynous look.”
Dunstan is both queer and disabled. As a deaf, autistic, gender non-binary individual, he said he is more critical of the limited representation of people in the fashion industry.
“The high fashion world has a long way to catch up with what’s happening in the queer communities themselves,” Dunstan said. “There is absolutely no reflection here of what it is that I see and people that I interact with on a regular basis.”
The next step would be to represent the non-binary individuals who are of colour, of different religions and of different body types in fashion, according to Dunstan.
As well, he said he would like to see undergarments that alter the appearance of one’s chest to undergo a fashion transformation.
“I would like to see binders and breast forms and the things that we are told that we can’t enjoy because we are trans, or the things that are just necessities to be turned into something beautiful,” Dunstan said.
He said he is hopeful for the future of gender fluidity within fashion and society.
“Those ties between biological sex and gender representation are getting weaker and weaker, and eventually . . . we will get to that point when gender fluidity in fashion and presentation will just be the norm,” Dunstan said.
Shelley Taylor, founder and owner of Ottawa’s sex shop and bookstore, Venus Envy, said she thinks the blurring of gender can only thrive in the fashion world.
“I think as long as we are working under a capitalist system . . . where women are playing women’s roles and men are playing men’s roles . . . I don’t feel very hopeful,” Taylor said. “I don’t see what’s happening in high fashion reflected in general populations.”
She said the experiences of violence, unemployment and mental health challenges for the transwomen in her personal life have made her lose hope in the progression of society.
“I would say if there weren’t those challenges there, if people were more accepting, and if employers hired transwomen on a more regular basis, I would say that maybe we are moving in the right direction, but I am just not seeing it,” Taylor said.
“What is a trend in this day and age anyway?” asked Jeanne Beker, Canadian television personality, designer, and writer.
She compared gender fluidity to animal prints. “We have gotten to a point where so many of these so-called ‘trends’ become classics,” Beker said. “You think of animal prints on the runway . . . it came and it went, it’s in and it’s out . . . now it has become a classic.”
She said she believes the trend of gender-neutral fashion will follow suit.
“I think the more and more that we see this . . . open mindedness towards clothes, I don’t think that’s ever going to go away now. I really don’t.”
For Lex Mckenna, a second-year undeclared student at Carleton, gender blurring on the runway “wasn’t really surprising.”
Mckenna, who identifies as queer, said this breaking down of the gender binary through fashion is not a direct response to society, but a response to the “prevalence of the conversation” within society itself.
Mckenna said fashion can be a tool for a political message—one of rebelling against a unified, one-dimensional style in order to “[make] it about the individual.”
“It’s about no longer being a collective, but each individual conversation through fashion,” Mckenna said.
They said they are making their own political statement through fashion by taking style inspiration from the 1950s, which was a time of strict gender roles, and tailoring both male and female pieces to fit into their personal style.
“I have a lot of blazers, ’50s swing dresses, mixed with sweater vests,” Mckenna said. “Taking that era and morphing it into whatever I want it to be.”
Beker said the future of gender neutral fashion isn’t as simple as it was in the past when pink was for girls and blue was for boys.
“As wearable technology starts to become more and more important to us, I think we are going to see a lot more garments that will be embraced by both men and women,” Beker said. “It will be more of a function over form idea . . . clothes that not only look great but do things for us.”
In the end, it is not a matter of masculine or feminine pieces, Beker said.
“For me, it is a matter of celebrating the individual,” Beker said. “You always have to dress for your spirit first and foremost.”
