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The widespread emergence of gender-fluid clothing and accessories in fashion is a movement that may come to define the era. It has moved beyond celebrities and influencers and is rapidly being embraced by fashion-loving consumers, lighting fires under brands from Ferragamo to Undercover, and is now appearing in fast fashion, as Shein sells “unisex” skirts. Much of the established retail world, however, has been caught off guard.
For generations, the male/female gender divide has been cemented in place throughout retailing, from physical stores to website design — where the “Men” and “Women” departments are the first point of entry to shopping — to the software programmes that track products from factories and throughout stores.
As a result, many stores and brands are now looking for ways to overcome the complex gender divide as they greet consumers who are increasingly shopping across the male/female divide.
Conversations with executives at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom suggest that while they recognise the significance of collapsing gender fashion rules, none feel they have found a broad solution that they’re ready to discuss on the record. Several executives said they are relying on a more narrow solution: asking store associates and stylists to guide clients individually across the aisles to looks that work for them.
Accommodating gender-fluid styles is particularly complex for multi-brand stores that juggle many hundreds of styles and thousands of SKUs, which are used to track inventory in and out the door. Neiman Marcus’s systems, for instance, won’t allow the same SKU to be used in multiple departments, according to an executive there.
Linda Fargo, the revered Bergdorf Goodman fashion director whose dedicated “Linda’s” rooms at the women’s store draw a devoted fashion crowd, was thinking about how the New York store will merchandise the gender-fluid looks she was seeing on runways last February. In a brief conversation outside the Gucci women’s show in Milan, she acknowledged that it’s tricky, but not optional.
“Well, we have a men’s store and a women’s store,” Fargo said. “So, we’re figuring it out because it’s very important to us.”
Brands, meanwhile, only need to merchandise their own collections. Salvatore Ferragamo Americas has been “double exposing” men’s and women’s products across the gender aisles, selling small clutch and pouch handbags, and blouses to men by placing them on men’s and women’s floors at its Fifth Avenue flagship in New York. “Logistically, it can be daunting,” says Daniella Vitale, chief executive of Ferragamo Americas.
Vitale recently began considering the website, where the brand has moved more slowly than in stores, to merchandise across genders. “That’s actually the easiest to fix because we can merchandise it wherever we want,” she says. “Yes, it has a different [inventory] code, but it doesn’t matter — you put it in your cart and you check out.”
Gucci, which was an early leader in making gender-fluid fashions under previous designer Alessandro Michele, has also been at the forefront with a “MX” tab on its website, situated beside its women, men and children tabs. MX, the site says, “highlights accessories and ready-to-wear styled with an all-gender focus”. The tab is stocked with runway ready-to-wear looks, handbags, jewellery, sunglasses, shoes — many of them the label’s most trend-setting.
Starting a gender-fluid brand from scratch eliminates some of the complexities that multi-brand retailers and established brands face in retrofitting their retail operations. Joseph Altuzarra’s Altu label and Clhu (Clothes for Humans), for example, sell primarily online, simplifying physical merchandising. Their homepages make the intent clear. “No rules. Just clothes,” reads the strapline on Clhu.com. Altu.world describes itself as a “genderful” label, using models of distinct as well as indistinct gender.
When Galyn Bernard and Christina Carbonell in 2015 launched Primary, a non-gendered childrenswear label, they rethought the traditional boy/girl website design, focusing instead on categories such as ages and colour schemes. They now have a “grownups” tab to carry over the demand for adult clothing.
“We did have investors ask, ‘Well how’s that going to work?’” Bernard says of their early fundraising efforts that encountered plenty of doubters that clothes could be sold without male/female designations. “We developed a site that was very intuitive, which was by category.”
Bernard and Carbonell expect Primary to top $70 million in revenue in 2023, and their data suggests the approach sells well. The brand’s conversion rate — the number of people who make a purchase after coming to the website — is 6 per cent, which is more than triple the industry standard. Three-quarters of Primary’s revenue comes from returning customers, suggesting they are highly loyal. The returns rate is extremely low at 5 per cent, compared with an industry average for e-commerce that hovers around 25 per cent.
It would be a mistake to write gender fluidity off as a passing fad, or even a fashion trend. Designer Marc Jacobs wore a black lace shirt dress to the 2012 Met Gala. Michele introduced the world to gender-bending Gucci in 2015. Brands are finding that gender-fluid designs attract younger consumers.
“This is not a trend. This is personal,” says Vitale at Ferragamo. “The less the barriers they feel, the less conformity, the more they feel there’s something for them.”
Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis has earned early plaudits since he debuted last September with a graceful collection of more feminine looks for men, and subtly masculine looks for women, including ready-to-wear, bags and shoes. The collections that have followed have put Ferragamo back on the fashion map.
This spring, Vitale bought herself a slinky black blouse that Davis put on the runway, in silver, on a male model as part of his debut Spring/Summer 2023 collection. “That top on the website is in the men’s section. But, in the store, it’s merchandised in the women’s section and in the men’s section,” Vitale says. “And that’s exactly how we’re treating accessories.”
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