GENDER NEUTRAL FASHION

Humans didn’t start wearing clothes because of fashion. Thousands of years ago, that did not matter; what did matter was whether or not they’d survive the night and live to see another day. However, as the danger of dying at the claws of a bear and freezing to death diminished, we started to care more about our appearances and that’s when jewellery, shoes, exquisitely decorated dreses and beautiful suits began to matter.

But there has always been this rift in society - those between men and women, people of colour and those of fair skin, people of smaller build and those of curvaceous nature - this was (and is) no different in fashion. Women were expected to wear dresses that favoured their figure and made them feminine, men were expected to wear suits that emphasised their masculinity and made them look powerful. Weight and skin colour affected these factors too, dark skinned women and men along with too-thin or too-curvy people did not fit into the category society viewed as “fashionable”.

In this new era of fashion, people have started to question these ideas - such as gender based clothing. Why is it that men and women are made to dress differently? Aren’t we all believed to be equal? Why is it that society still feels the need to create a distance between genders? As we head towards a much more equal society than that of our ancestors, we feel the need to answer these questions and find a way to express ourselves without being held back by gender stereotypes - gender neutral clothing is the way to do it. More women have started buying in the men’s section, and vice versa and that tells us that people are less concerned with their masculinity/femininity and more with what makes them feel good, and look good.