GENDERLESS FASHION. A GROWING TREND OR NEW NORM?

Whether it’s the pastel, floral and voluminous  girlcore dresses, the athletic preppy polos or the surprise return of capri pants (please really do these HAVE to make a come-back?), the fashion shows of the year have given us a taste of what’s going to be hot in 2024. 

High-rise tailored trousers, boxy blazers, and short suits dominated the SS24 catwalks. One of Helmut Lang’s pieces in particular is eye-catching: a dark suit, with yellow details and  a seatbelt-like yellow sash wrapping crossbody over the shoulder, cinching the waist.

The model an androgynous wonder. As reported by Vogue, this detailing is a homage to the company’s history of ‘advertising on the top of taxi-cabs.’.

Do, the designer of Lang’s SS24 season, explaining his concept stated “good design is a design that feels like it’s always been there” (The Run-Through podcast, Vogue) He chose to draw from this piece of Lang’s story, recurrently flecking yellow through the collection. 

For Do, this evocation of a nostalgic feeling, a familiarity in the new, is the core of design. In SS24, by borrowing elements from the past, nodding to history, the creation of oxymoronically ultra-modern yet relatable designs is possible. 

Well, androgyny has always existed in some manner. It’s in ancient religion, in Dionysus, the gender-fluid Roman god of fertility and wine.  

It’s in theatre, the cross-dressing of Shakespeare’s plays (The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and more). It’s in society, politics, and art.

Androgynous dressing and appearances can be found throughout time, topic and space. 2024’s fashion space brings us a taste of this deeply embedded cultural phenomenon, through the crisp execution of office-chic, power looks. 

With new year around the corner, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the past. So, let’s turn the clock back exactly 100 years. From 2024 (nearly!) to 1924. 

It’s 1924. Fashion is changing, and has been since the end of the First World War. The war sparked a need for practical women’s clothing, shorter skirts, overalls and boots, as they replaced men working in farms and munitions factories.

Continued below…

Rapidly, the post war trend evolved from the day-to-day functionality of clothing to high fashion, aesthetic. Owing to Poiret,  known as ‘The King of Fashion’, corsets or petticoats were no longer required in dresses. This allowed the movement towards modernist, more minimalist cuts (MET, 2008). However, this was only the opening of the door on the potentialities of modern women’s fashion. 

The spotlight now turns to a familiar name: Coco Chanel. 

Expanding on Poiret’s work Chanel designed and released lines of clothes that were simple, sporty and mixing female and male fashion elements together. A few examples include designing jodhpurs for women in the 1920s (no need for side-saddle riding anymore!), and her popularising of the harsh boyish bob so often associated with the “Roaring Twenties”. 

Then, in 1924, inspired by her boyfriend’s clothing, Chanel introduced her revolutionary, iconic Tweed Suit.

The suit gained instant global recognition, Ina Claire, a famous actress, touting it in an edition of American Vogue. The boxy masculine elements, the adjustments to cuts to make them non-restrictive, the materials of Chanel’s work all were cutting edge, causing profound social implications. These developments were the start of ‘breaking the rules of what defines femininity and masculinity’ (Cardon, 2021) in fashion. Androgyny was given a stage in modern high fashion.

Fast forward as we look to 2024. The playing field is completely different. Fashion has moved constantly, morphing unstoppingly in the last 100 years.

Looking at the catwalks now, the office aesthetic is distinctly different. The short suit would never have existed in 1924, far too much ankle. Neither would the oversized-ness, nor the sheer elements, or revealing cuts that have appeared in designer’s SS24 collections.

But there is a sense  that we are still looking at a new year of fashion with ‘a design that’s always been there’. The simplicity of office–wear cuts remains, the timelessness, the familiarity and  the intention to subvert gender norms are all silently present. 

Androgynous fashion is undeniably on the rise, not only in high fashion, but throughout all levels of fashion. Clothing being labelled as unisex or genderless has grown by 325% in Europe and 500% in the US since 2020, as reported by CentricPricing. It’s a significant increase, signalling the demand for the binary free buys. 

Looking onwards into 2024,  steal that suit jacket from a husband/boyfriend/brother/friend, and embrace the new trend. But also, remember androgynous fashion has an appeal beyond being ‘trendy’ again,  every piece  carries an important piece of fashion history within its seams.