Fashion: Blurred lines
Gender-fluid fashion provides scope to move flexibly between genders and five experts give us their take
As a teenager in the ‘90s, I’d often pair men’s shirts and tees with floral A-line skirts or my mother’s plain black salwars to look different. In 2007, when Kareena Kapoor made a similar style statement in a white Patiala salwar and printed T-shirt combo in Jab We Met, I realised I wasn’t the only one.
Many moons later, at a fashion shoot, intrigued by her uncommon-looking casual wear, I asked stylist Mia where she picked her clothes from. Mia grinned. She often shopped from the men’s section, she said.
“When styling shoots, I don’t shop for men or women. I just scout for a certain look. Other than socks and skirts, there’s not much of a difference for girls and guys, especially nowadays,” says Mia.
Fashion journalist Varun Rana fell in love with his mother’s sari collection while growing up. “Studying fashion design at NIFT, New Delhi, I began to see the sari as an engineered drape rather than a marker of gender and started wearing saris as dhotis,” he says. “It was never my intention to make any sort of gender-fluid style statement. It is just that a lot of people associate a beautiful length of fabric solely with women.”
What’s in a name?
“Gender-fluid fashion to some people means unisex fashion, which is items of clothing that work well for both sexes. But to me, it has more to do with a non-conformist attitude,” says Dubai-based fashion journalist, author and mindful fashion advocate Sujata Assomull. “You see pussy bows on menswear at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, and silhouettes in women’s wear that are more sartorial.”
“Gender-fluid influences where you cannot create a sense of the other by saying you can’t wear this or you can only wear that, is the most interesting revolution that’s happening in fashion right now. The simple rule is that there are no rules,” says London-based Nonita Kalra, editor-in-chief, Tata CLiQ Luxury.
No particular kind of fashion is gender fluid, points out Varun. “It’s how one chooses to wear it that makes a garment gender-fluid,” he explains. “While gender-fluidity is cool to talk about and is used as a marketing tool in fashion, there are also many people that understand it as part of their lives.”
Historically speaking
“From time immemorial there has been fluidity in the cut and drape of unstitched garments. In ancient Rome and Greece, men wore long, flowing robes (togas) with a long drape over one shoulder, much like the Indian sari. Or they wore skirts that barely skimmed the knee! The women wore similarly-styled togas. The kilt—a short, pleated skirt—is another gender-bender item of clothing worn by men. In India, both men and women wear long or short kurtas with pajamas. Several dhoti styles resemble the manner in which saris are draped, and vice versa, such as the Maharashtrian Nauvari sari,” says senior designer Madhu Jain.
For the fashion industry, the movement towards consciously blurring the lines between genders began in the 20th century. “Big-ticket design houses began dressing their models in unisex clothes. Coco Chanel, for instance, began borrowing men’s clothes and adapted them to fit her female models. In India, more and more designers are experimenting with draping men in skirts and jackets and women in tuxes!” Madhu says.
Androgyny, says Sujata, first started being used in the Indian context when Abraham and Thakore started doing angarakhas and Anamika Khanna began dhotis. “Androgyny came when we were talking about women’s rights and women’s representation, and gender-fluidity is coming now when we are talking about inclusivity,” she says.
According to designer Nida Mahmood, gender neutrality is a big conversation all over the world. “In India, it is still in the early stages, but is slowly picking up steam,” Nida says. “Small groups who believe in the concept are working on it, while big players are still shy of the risk!”
Walking the talk
Madhu is all for gender-fluidity, and not just in fashion. “Each of us should have the freedom to choose our personal form of expression. After all, ‘male’ and ‘female’ traits are determined along a continuum by society and ‘traits’ are interpreted variously in different cultures. There are no absolutes!” she says.
Her own line of clothing includes gender-fluid collections.“In some of the pants we make—from churidars and dogri pajamas to Moroccan pants—the only difference is in the placement of the zip: a side zip for women, a front zip for men. The short kurtas in my Uzbek ikat line can be worn by both sexes,” Madhu explains.
Nida spent the lockdown in 2020 researching the future of fashion and figured gender-fluid clothing was the way to go. This is why she launched a new line, Suresh Ramesh Shirt Co., which hinges on inclusivity and equality. “We make gender neutral shirts, shirt variations, kurtas, kurta variations and more. Interesting prints, modern cuts and breathable fabrics are our key cornerstones. We are inspired by India and its nuances,” she says.
Fashion writing must also be genuinely inclusive, says Nonita. “There can be no ‘other’, no boundaries, no treating it differently. It’s important that it’s normalised, it’s part of regular storytelling, and not treated as though you are doing something special. It is high time for the coming of gender-fluid fashion because we have to stop defining our limitations on other people’s feelings and hopes,” she says.
From HT Brunch, July 9, 2022
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