Why the Terms Unisex and Gender Neutral are not Fit for Purpose in Contemporary Clothing and Fashion Design

Ashley Morgan
2019 Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology  
Opinion The word unisex when applied to clothing, very simply describes clothing that both men and women can wear interchangeably, such as jeans and t-shirts. This term seems to have been adopted by fashion and clothing companies to suggests that they make clothing that can be worn by anyone. Yet, the fixed nature of sex is both contestable and regularly contested, and the term is hardly used in any other forum -is there still room for this term in clothing and fashion which seems
more » ... The original concept of unisex clothing was created in 1968 by Rudi Gernreich, who created a series of garments, such as trousers and tops that women and men could wear interchangeably [1] . But according to those in the fashion industry, was a short-lived trend. Closer examination of images of these kinds of clothes reveals that they were suitable only for extremely slender female models, embodied by models such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton in the 1960's. Arguably, this suggests that clothing of this nature was suitable only for men and women who had the figures of men. The terms sex and gender are social constructions, and are now considered much more dynamic, yet clothing, and fashions of clothing remains remarkably static. While women have adopted clothing traditionally associated with men, such as trousers, jackets and shirts, the same is not commonly true for men [2] . The term 'gender neutral' might now have replaced 'unisex' and refers to clothing that both men and women can wear. Yet what this usually means in practice is larger clothing that women can adopt as a fashion statement, as they are commonly oversized, such as
doi:10.33552/jtsft.2019.02.000537 fatcat:4bwen6yltnglrnlmexubx6jmam