(upbeat music) - [Susan] Genderless fashion, gender-neutral, genderfluid, and even unisex clothing, these are all terms that have been receiving a lot of attention in the fashion industry lately.

In 2020, Vogue magazine even declared that the future of retail is genderless, with brands like Gucci and PacSun releasing their own gender-neutral lines.

Adidas even opened a gender-neutral store.

But when you look closely at each line, you'll see that there isn't much consistency in design, and people also have different definitions for gender-neutral fashion, so in order to get a better understanding of this emerging new trend, I met a couple of fashionistas championing this style.

Talking about gender-neutral clothing, I mean, what's your definition for it?

- [Fashionista] Wearing what makes you feel good and comfortable in your body.

- I think that everything is gender-neutral, and if you see something that you like, you shouldn't be afraid to wear it.

- [Narrator] And what I discovered is that the appeal of gender-neutral fashion lies in fact in its ambiguity.

(upbeat music) - Kindly step forward.

(upbeat music) - It's no secret we've always separated our clothing based on gender, and traditionally under two camps, womenswear and menswear.

But where a garment falls within these two categories varies on the society and time period in which it was worn.

For example, the color pink, floral prints, high heels, and lace, all elements commonly associated with women's clothing today, were actually first worn by men.

So then where does gender-neutral fashion fall within these two categories?

Well, it doesn't.

This is Maxine Britt, owner and designer of Mx Apparel, a Minnesota-based clothing line that specializes in gender-neutral fashion.

- This will be my new spring collection, so it's a lot of returning silhouettes in new colors, plus some new stuff that I'm really excited about.

So these have like an asymmetrical hem.

- Oh, nice!

- Which is really fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So those are really cute on and I'm excited to see it on the models today.

- [Susan] What's your definition of gender-neutral fashion?

- For me, the definition of gender-neutral fashion incorporates two parts.

The first part being that it is marketed towards people of all genders.

Not both genders, all genders, in terms of how it's presented, who's supposed to wear this in the marketing.

Also, it's incorporating the fact that people of a variety of body types and proportions are gonna be wearing these clothes, 'cause a lot of gender-neutral brands kind of tend to gloss over that part.

- If we were to put somebody who is wearing those traditional menswear and women's wear and then we were to put someone in let's say, your clothing brand, or are you able to differentiate between the three?

- I don't really think gender-neutral fashion has to look like any one specific thing, but in menswear and womenswear, there are conventions in terms of design, for example, which way a shirt buttons.

So for myself, I don't really work with buttons or button-down shirts.

Yeah, it looks good.

It looks nice.

In an ideal world, for me, there would be no clothing categories.

It would just be shirts and pants and all that good stuff, and I could just make clothes.

But how we exist right now in society, gender-neutral fashion is needed to help people understand things better, to help people who don't feel served by those sections.

It's like a stepping stone.

- Nice.

It looks good.

- Gender-neutral fashion is not new.

The term may be new, but the act of disregarding and challenging gender norms via dress has been around in one form or another for thousands of years.

Probably the earliest iteration of gender-neutral fashion originated with cross-dressing, or dressing like the opposite sex.

We've seen it in Greek mythology when Achilles' mother disguised him as a woman to avoid the Trojan War, in Shakespearean times, especially as boy players portray female characters, and of course, throughout history many women have disguised themselves to earn a living, fight wars, and to exercise their rights.

But in many of these instances, cross-dressing was often looked down upon and deemed illegal.

This is Jo Paoletti, a professor emerita at the University of Maryland, where she spent nearly 40 years researching gender differences in American fashion.

- Throughout the 19th century, men's clothing becomes as we would recognize today, as modern masculinity.

Women's clothing was still holding onto the decorative, very status conscious, very impractical fashion.

- I say when?

- Now!

- When?

- Now!

- [Susan] It wasn't until the 1960s during the counterculture era in America that mainstream fashion industries began flirting with the idea of blurring gender lines.

Unisex clothing, for example, had a short stint as fashion designers sought to minimize gender differences by creating garments that can fit both men and women.

- The '60s are a period of great change, of course, but you could still pretty easily tell the boys from the girls.

Beneath unisex in the '60s and '70s, the binary is still there.

Because what they're doing is using the assumptions of the binary.

What makes something gender non-binary is the interaction between the garment and the person.

- And so by the 1980s, unisex clothing was thrown out in favor of androgynous fashion.

Androgyny is the ancient Greek term that translates to man and woman.

In fashion, androgyny is a style of dress that mixes both feminine and masculine elements.

Pop icons at the time like Prince, David Bowie, Grace Jones, and Annie Lennox really embraced this look and brought it to the limelight.

But perhaps the biggest driving force behind this style, especially in America, is the queer community - [DJ] Yes girl, go on and battle.

- [Narrator] In fact, androgynous fashion is arguably the foundation that led to the emergence of gender-neutral clothing today.

- [Maxine] It's not so much about the look of the clothing, it's more so about understanding the fact that androgyny is different for everyone.

- Do you think it also provides a safe space?

- That really is the heart of what I do.

That's all I want for anyone is to be able to express themself, and really feel good in fashion and have fun with fashion.

- [Susan] At the photo shoot, I met Albe Sanchez, one of the models for Mx Apparel, and they invited me out for a night of dressing fearlessly.

- So, welcome in.

- Oh my goodness.

I love your space.

Love the color scheme.

Albe is a go-go dancer and is usually performing in the evenings, but tonight they're my stylist.

- For fashion, when it comes to why we're even just going out in the first place, we're trying to catch some eyes.

(upbeat music) What queer fashion is doing is boundary pushing, but the way that I perceive it is just claiming.

To me it's not that revolutionary to dress well.

I think it's kind of a return to something a little bit more intuitive.

Dressing for your body, not dressing for your gender.

- Mm.

Yeah.

- I often credit Minneapolis with allowing me to discover who I was.

I felt comfortable to hold someone's hand.

I felt comfortable to investigate feelings in myself that I saw other people investigating at the same time, being affirmed in my fashion sense.

Fashion should not be censored.

Fashion should not be questioned in the sense of well, they're gonna meet me for where I am.

What do you think?

- I look like a mermaid.

Do I not?

- [Albe] People are gonna lose their mind when they see you.

- Oh wow.

- Like you're resting it on an armrest.

- Like this?

- There you go.

Definitely, there you go.

Other hand, you wanna do the same thing.

Maybe, you know, just follow along.

(energetic dance music) (upbeat music) - Before tonight, I would've never pictured myself in a wig or let alone dancing in public, but seeing Albe being their true, authentic self and forging their own path really inspired me to let go of any of my preconceived notions I have about myself.

And Albe is definitely right.

It's absolutely freeing.

It turns out there may never be a fixed look or style for gender-neutral fashion, but I think that's the point.

And if there's anything to gain from my experience, it's that gender-neutral fashion is all about empowering people to set their own rules, rather than the rules set before them.

(upbeat music) Hey, did you enjoy our video?

Well, if you did, make sure to check out other episodes of Worn Within in our playlist, linked somewhere right here.

(upbeat music)