My-my, how the world is changing. As we reported recently, not only is the androgyny trend gathering steam, but it is also having serious socio-political market effects.
British department store Selfridges has announced that for six weeks, they will be turning their London Oxford Street location (along with smaller outlets in Manchester and Birmingham) into an entirely gender-neutral pop-up shop. Removing the men’s and women’s departments on all three floors, they will be mixing their clothing offerings regardless of which sex you identify with.
Launching in mid-March, Selfridges is calling the move the “Agender” project and will feature an exclusive genderless interior design line from Faye Toogood, along with capsule collections from Bodymap, Nicola Formichetti, Rad Hourani, and Underground. In addition to this, they will also be featuring items from Ann Demeulemeester, Comme des Garçons, Meadham Kirchoff, and Gareth Pugh. To complete the look, Selfridges will be dressing up their window mannequins in more unisex garb along with decorating the store interior thematically.
As seen at London Collections: Men, young British fashion designers are actively combating their nation’s reputation as stuffy and conservative in favour of becoming an adventurous style mecca. Nobody needs to hear that everything is better in Europe but… well, it kind of is — excluding those big, scary unemployment and austerity measures, of course. In terms of creativity in fashion and fluidity in gender on a consumer level, the international community (including Asia) really has us beat.
We can only hope that the aggressively-expanding department store chains Holt Renfrew, Simons, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue will take the unisex hint from Selfridges. Agender should be viewed not as a PR stunt, but rather a reflection of something that more and more people are interested in purchasing and visually participating in. As noted in “The Rant: In Defence of Fashion,” clothing can often serve as a marker of one’s identity and subgrouping. As more people — especially men — become comfortable with exploring gender variation, we suspect unisex fashion will continue to grow in popularity. Metro UK quotes Linda Hewson, Selfridges’ creative director, as saying the Agender project “is not about harnessing a trend, but rather tapping into a mind-set and acknowledging and responding to a cultural shift that is happening now.”
Androgyny and unisex clothing isn’t go anywhere, and it’s time our retail racks started reflecting that fact. To help you ace the androgynous aesthetic, here are 10 unisex fashion designers to help get you looking the genderless part.
Click here to view gallery.
What are your thoughts on Selfridges going gender-neutral? Let Vv Magazine know in the comments below or tweet us @ViewTheVibe.
