Clothing hasn’t always been as gendered and binary as it is today; in different eras and cultures the gender roles have played a much smaller role in fashion, and the norms have changed or even reversed, as it’s the case for long gowns or skirts that largely disappeared from men’s wardrobes.
Gender neutral clothing has a long history of challenging the rigid, binary fashion norms, and is seeing a surge in popularity particularly among Gen-Z. For the most part however, it seems to be bringing traditionally masculine pieces to women, while the opposite is much rarer.
From the very beginning of our lives we learn to equate gender with sex and see gender roles play a part in every aspect of society, which makes it extremely hard for gender neutral clothing to really become mainstream. As a fashion brand, we want to understand how to navigate around this and give people the freedom to wear what they are happy with. In our view this shouldn’t only mean moving towards men’s clothing for women, or minimal and featureless designs for all, but also accepting that traditionally women’s clothing shouldn’t be confined to women and that our language and imagery should reflect that.
As an item of clothing that doesn’t currently carry a clear gender association, our Apollo mantel will be our first step in creating beautiful garments that can be worn by all.