Fashion Is For Everyone, So Why Am I Still Downloading Runway Looks For "Men" or "Women"?

Published on 10/6/2021 at 5:05 PM

Courtesy of Christian Cowan

For a person interested in fashion, there is nothing as exciting as imagining and preplanning your future wardrobe based on emerging runway trends. There's also nothing as infuriating as feeling discouraged by clothing that caught your eye because, for some reason, you find it wasn't made for you.

As an editor, it's frustrating to have witnessed season after season of designers refusing to acknowledge people of different body types, abilities, ethnicities, racial backgrounds, and genders on the runway. It makes you want to turn away from an industry that seemingly reflects inconsistency through its values. But more than that, it makes you want to speak up. Especially for the marginalized communities that see certain brands as being unattainable or off-limits, not just because of who is or isn't wearing the clothing on the runway but also on a basic level, because of how a collection is labeled (and that's what we see first!).

"No color or fabric or cut is gender exclusive."

Even before show attendees hear the music thumping and see the lights go down before a presentation, setting the vibe, they're greeted with notes on their seats that can do one of two things: speak to everyone or define the customer very specifically. Similarly, before I know what looks I'm going to see from a fashion house when I click into a press release, I often see two different links: "download womenswear" or "download menswear." That alone excludes an entire population of people who do not identify as a woman or a man, and it also speaks to the antiquated idea that gender identity should influence clothing preference at all. Words alone are that powerful, and they can be that divisive.

For that reason, I still go back to and admire Stoney Michelli Love's mission statement for Stuzo Clothing all the time: "Our pieces are gender free as we prefer to call them because clothes don't have organs last time we checked." It aligns with Chromat designer Becca McCharen-Tran's perspective and purpose as a creator. Becca put out a full line of swimwear for trans, nonbinary, and queer people for spring/summer 2022, telling me, "Garments are inherently gender neutral, as they are just objects . . . It's important that people realize that no color or fabric or cut is gender exclusive."

Of course, casting comes into play. Who is wearing these clothes as they're introduced to us for the very first time? The Fashion Spot's New York Fashion Week diversity report for the season states that transgender and nonbinary model appearances accounted for 2.4 percent of castings for spring/summer 2022. The total number was 30, seen on runways such as The Blonds, Prabal Gurung, Collina Strada, Moschino, Batsheva, Gabriela Hearst, Jonathan Simkhai, and Chromat, of course, which also included one drag queen and one intersex model. That's an increase compared to the six transgender or nonbinary models at NYFW in fall 2021, but it's still disheartening when you consider the fact that the European shows that follow tend to be even less inclusive historically.

Ultimately, designers are going to be winning if they show how a skirt — or any item of clothing — can be worn by anyone, instead of just one specific type of person, thereby changing the narrow definitions of gender we've seen on the runway. The labels ahead grasp that simple idea and approach design through a gender-neutral lens, so I'm here to celebrate them. We need to bring visibility to brands that look beyond the binary in order to extend representation into the future.

Chromat

Chromat launched swimwear for trans, nonbinary, and queer people at The People's Beach at Jacob Riis Park in Queens. Designer Becca McCharen-Tran teamed up with filmmaker and artist Tourmaline to codesign the collection, telling POPSUGAR, "Garments are inherently gender neutral, as they are just objects. Garments don't have a gender. It's important that people realize that no color or fabric or cut is gender exclusive."

Christian Cowan

Cowan, who has cast models of all genders for past collections, designed spring 2022 for "the club kid" with pieces inspired by Gen Z's take on retro. The New York Fashion Week show teased an upcoming partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue and new line with Fiorucci, proving that his sensibility and approach to clothing is the future. "Cowan goes further against the grain this season, rebelling against past commentary on the lack of cohesion in his collections. Untraditional in his design, rise to fame, and approach to the market, the only clarity in Cowan's vision this season is the mission to be out and be seen," the press release read.

Eckhaus Latta

To mark their 20th show standing at the forefront of gender-neutral fashion, Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta showed skin-baring, sheer, and gauzy pieces with cutouts plus asymmetrical and deconstructed knits that belong in the wardrobe of anyone who uses clothing as freedom of expression. Rosalía and Troye Sivan sat front row. Eckhaus told Vogue, "It's about feeling more free. Really feeling yourself, coming out of the past year-and-a-half and wanting to feel sexy and confident and free."

Theophilio

Theophilio Creative Director Edvin Thompson brought his native Jamaican culture to the runway, utilizing the colors of the Rastafarian flag (red, green, and yellow) to debut "Air Jamaica" for spring/summer 2022, a 28-piece collection that featured a mix of models wearing the men's, women's, and unisex line.

Private Policy

Private Policy, which has invited customers to shop without restrictions to gender since its inception, uses each season to comment on one social-political topic. For spring 2022, designers Haoran Li and Siying Qu called their collection "Urban Plants: Good for the Planet, Good for the Mind," to remind showgoers that biophilia is a form of self-care. In other words, collect those plants and free the mind! The clothing felt inclusive, neat, and even a bit psychedelic. The pastel, satin separates with off-kilter checks would easily mesh into anyone's wardrobe.

Marni

Francesco Risso's show for Marni, one of my personal favorites from the season, utilized stripes drawn in every which way to connect the clothing from person to person. The models, with all different body types, wore the clothes with confidence — like they had proudly picked out these outfits themselves. The show notes began with a poem, "Wear We Are": "Here, where we are and ear, what we wear is what we are. / Where we are, one we are, for what we wear," it reads, followed by a descriptive summary: "Either covered or revealed, the individuality of the body is intensely present, felt in its energy, breath and skin, alive, ready for contact, connected."

Thom Browne

Thom Browne returned to New York Fashion Week for the first time in four years to present his spring 2022 collection that celebrates his impeccable approach to tailoring. It was a celebration of American fashion in support of his partner Andrew Bolton's Met exhibition In America: A Lexicon of Fashion (also his reason for choosing to show in New York this season). The graphics that depict the human form and directly challenge the binary were actually created from layers of tulle built up to visually show shading in all the right places.

Raf Simons

Raf Simons created a timeless shape to send down the runway in all forms — boxy, knee-length skirts with blazers, oversize shirts, or sweaters clenched with his iconic skeleton cuff — that he told Vogue feel like a uniform on a boy and like couture on a girl. "So many men are buying womenswear anyway. The question is if they're buying clothes that are made for women, or clothes that are made for both men and women. It's something I find fascinating to focus on . . . At the birth of a baby, nobody is approaching it like male or female. It's just a baby. I wanted to work out a shape that works for both in the same way, even if your perception of the girl or the boy dressed in it is different," he said.

Lacoste

Louise Trotter's vision of tennis-inspired athletic wear looked beyond the binary at Lacoste this season and really honed in on the idea of everyday movement. The pleated tennis skirts in frosted pastel rubber and short suits were worn by men and women — all finished with sneakers or slides so the looks felt youthful and upbeat. "A call-and-repeat of sartorial and sports tropes results in hybrid typologies and subtle nods to sporting subcultures," the spring/summer 2022 show notes read.

If there are any spring/summer 2022 collections you love that I've missed and you think should be included here, please let me know!