Fashion can be a very creative form of expression, as it allows a person to experiment with different styles in the efforts of finding their personalized style. It is a common misconception amongst the fashion world that there are “do’s and don'ts” of fashion. The problem with this ideal is that the actual purpose of fashion is to express yourself in the way you prefer, so if you don’t play by the “rules”, no harm, no foul. Fashion is an art which affords creative freedom. A person can and should be able to dress however they want, to show off who they are. As time goes on and people become more open, barriers are being torn down when it comes to who is supposed to wear what. Societal expectations of what is expected for men and women to wear, what is considered feminine versus masculine, becomes more blurred as people and brands set out to challenge those norms. With that, labels are making their main emphasis on fashion being person first, by focusing on clothes and accessories that everyone can enjoy and see themselves in.
With that being said, there are some notable brands that are stepping up and crossing the boundaries by making their brand in favor of gender neutral offerings:
One DNA
One DNA is a New York based brand, founded by Simon Black and Travis Weaver, who place inclusivity as one of its core principles. They produce their brand inside independent New York workshops, with their clothing made to be wearable and repairable over the long term. They aim to create a product for people “stepping out of the binary.” They focus on size inclusivity as much as they focus on gender inclusivity, creating styles that suit any body type and still withholding their unisex design approach.
Big Bud Press
Big Bud Press is a Los Angeles based clothing brand that specializes in unisex, everyday goods, founded by Lacey Micallef and Philip Seastrom in 2015. At the start, their focus centered around quality accessories and created a style that was inspired by late 60’s, early 70’s advertisements and pop art. They would eventually grow into an apparel brand that they described as being “non-trend” driven. They want their customers to feel authentic and create that authenticity by creating their own beauty, without the labels. Big Bud Press has also made sustainability a priority, using local fabrics and their products are produced domestically.
Crete
Lil Yatchy, an Atlanta rapper, has begun taking steps into the world of fashion, creating a gender-neutral nail polish brand called Crete. Crete is still very much in its infancy, launching the last week of May 2021. Its goal is to reach out to everyone, including guys that may want to start decorating their nails. The polish comes as a pen that dispenses small doses of polish that dries quickly once dispeled. The launch came with three colors: black, white, and gray, making an emphasis on the name’s origin, the word and idea of concrete. The idea of neutral colors was to be inclusive for all genders, focus being on men. Although they launched with “safe” colors, they plan to introduce more bold colors. The next two drops would be titled “Heatwave” and “Glow”, featuring colors heartbreak, sunset, and sunflower for the former and electrobloom, ultrabeam, and quantum for the latter.
Lonely Kids Club
Launched in 2011, Lonely Kids Club is an independent label with the belief that clothing should be personal. The brand was founded by Warwick Levy, run out of Sydney, Australia. Lonely Kids Club focuses on mental health, gender diversity, and equality. They offer a variety of clothing and accessories for adults and children, but instead, focusing on better sizing instead of gender categories with gender categories. They also believe in slow fashion, opting for sustainability, ethical production, and environmental impact reduction with tems being made in Sydney.
Caur
Caur is an athleisure brand with the goal to minimize the impact of gender stereotypes that come with gender labels. Founded by Romain Guyot, he aimed to create performance clothing that was ethically produced so people “feel good while doing good”. Clothing is designed in Paris and produced in Portugal, made out of recycled and organic materials. There is also the focus on representation, with skin tones, body types, and age groups when producing clothing. Caur uses premium fabrics as performance is considered a core value, due to the sole fact that athleisure is created to be able to move in.
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