When you walk into a store, there’s a pretty clear divide as to what is intended for men vs. what is intended for women. We are currently living through a gender revolution, learning to separate the definitions of sex and gender. Gender is a social construct that defines what you do, how you should act, and what you should wear based on your sex. Through the work of queer, intersex and trans crusaders, we have learned that you can embrace anything that feels true to you regardless of where you fall on the gender spectrum.
‘Non-binary’ is a growing gender identity that we have seen, particularly among younger generations. People who fall into the non-binary gender identity classification do not adhere to the dual gender rules — non-binary people can choose any aspect of culture that has traditionally been outlined as male or female. Without specific guidelines, companies and organizations have now been tossed into a world where lines are blurred, ultimately creating confusion. This now begs the question, “How can fashion cater to this new category of gender?” The separation between men and women in retail spaces is outdated. The social construct prevents us from thinking that we can wear certain things, but anyone can wear any garment that they please at the end of the day.
You can look at Prada, Fendi, Louis Vuitton and just about every other luxury brand that claims inclusivity, but you can go to their websites and you will see products still separated by the ever-popular ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ sections. Turns out, however, that Gucci’s iconic ‘G’ monogram logo stands for gender fluidity. Gucci has recently taken that monumental step … a step that no other luxury brand has yet taken. Mind you, this is a very minimal, performative step — Gucci has not created products that are specifically non-binary, but it is a step nonetheless that no other brand is taking. Gucci at the very least acknowledges the existence of non-binary people when they need representation on a larger scale. These items can be found on their website under their ‘MX’ tab, a gender-neutral term to refer to someone in lieu of Mr. and Mrs.
Gucci has always had clothing that skews gender-neutral, but their recent virtual fashion presentation has pushed them leaps and bounds toward actually creating a line that can appeal to people of any gender identity. The brand created recently an online seven-episode film series titled “GucciFest: Ouverture Of Something That Never Ended” featuring a world that exclusively dons Gucci apparel. Much of the collection featured a variety of people adopting very fluid senses of gender within their style.
Harry Styles, a longtime brand partner of Gucci and Alessandro Michele, covered Vogue December 2020 in a dress, which is just the kind of gender-bending we expect to see from the pop star. The Fine Line artist opens up about his style saying, “”When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play … I’ll go in shops sometimes, and I just find myself looking at the women’s clothes thinking they’re amazing. It’s like anything — anytime you’re putting barriers up in your own life, you’re just limiting yourself. There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes.”
After drawing mass amounts of criticism online, Styles fired back in an interview with Variety saying, “To not wear [something] because it’s females’ clothing, you shut out a whole world of great clothes,” the 26-year-old said of backlash to his Vogue cover. “And I think what’s exciting about right now is you can wear what you like. It doesn’t have to be X or Y. Those lines are becoming more and more blurred.”
Gucci’s choice to further align themselves with such an influential public figure who doesn’t buy into the idea that clothing should be restrictive based on gender can only contribute to their claimed support of non-binary people. Opening up this mental barrier is not only an excellent step for Gucci in a progressive sense of their contributions to liberation, but it becomes a rather tactful business model to open all products to all consumers rather than dividing up your inventory and targeting each at different segments of the population.