Of all the world-changing, heart-breaking and rage-inducing moments of 2020, it was a dress that sent the internet into meltdown.
Pop icon Harry Styles appeared on the cover of a magazine wearing a Gucci gown โ a ruffled periwinkle number paired with a cropped tuxedo jacket โ and sparked headlines, hero worship and hatred alike. Many applauded his bold statement and flouting of gender norms; others declared that a cisgender, straight white man didnโt deserve to spearhead this cultural conversation; and conservative commentators wept for the patriarchy (โBring back manly men,โ tweeted far-right American pundit Candace Owens).
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Styles responded by draping himself in feminine frills, feather boas and strings of pearls at every photo opportunity thenceforth.
โI think whatโs exciting about right now is you can wear what you like,โ he later told a reporter. โIt doesnโt have to be X or Y. Those lines are becoming more and more blurred.โ
Gender-fluid dressingโbreaking the boundaries between clothing tradiยญtionally worn by women and menโis nothing new. In Ancient Greece and Rome, everybody wore togas and tunics. In the 1970s and โ80s, performers such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Annie Lennox and Grace Jones experimented with gender-bending style; and minority communitiesโBlack, queer, trans and Latinxโhave long dressed outside the box, laying the groundwork for todayโs movement.
But while Stylesโ femme foray wasnโt the first, it wasโas he himself once sangโa sign of the times.
In 2020, London Fashion Week went gender-neutral, merging womenswear and menswear into one single showcase. Recent Louis Vuitton collections have seen countless men on the catwalk wearing kilts, dresses and skirts. The houseโs late artistic director of menswear, Virgil Abloh, simply described it as a โhuman approachโ to dressing.
Often, the runway reflects real life, and this rapid rise of non-binary fashion into the mainstream coincides with a wider discussion about identity and expression. Namely, what does gender even mean?
โWhile sex is biologยญically determined at birth, gender is something thatโs socially and culturally constructed,โ explains Dr Alexandra Sherlock, lecturer in fashion theory at RMIT University.
โItโs something that we learn. Thereโs nothing natural or essential about gender.โ
Instead, the term refers to how an individual feels and identifies. That might be as a man, as a woman or as non-binary: somewhere on the specยญtrum in between. It may be fixed or fluid, and itโs separate from sexuality.
The term โnon-binaryโ was offiยญcially added to the Collins Dictionary in late 2019, and in 2021 it was introยญduced to the national census, meaning statistics on non-binary Australians are still unavailable.
An estimated 1.2 million Americans identify as non-binary, although the figure could be much higher. Gender nonconforming people have existed since the beginยญning of timeโJoan of Arc in 15th-century France, and Australiaโs First Nations Sistergirls and Brotherboys, who are part of the longest living trans cultures on earthโyet many individuยญals are only now finding the words to express themselves.
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On the red carpet, actor Billy Porter and non-binary Queer Eye host Jonathan Van Ness have led the way in subverting gender norms, turning up in ballooning ball gowns and racy, sheer skirts. Lil Nas X, a queer Black man, is shaking up the hip-hop scene in beaded bodysuits and hot-pink cowboy boots, while rapper Kid Cudi wore a white, floral dress on Saturday Night Live.
Even hetero lothario Pete Davidson, he who inspired โBig Dick Energyโ, wore a tunic to the 2021 Met Gala.
Broadening the idea of what it means to be a manโvia fashion, in this instanceโcould even help break the cycle of toxic masculinity.
โIn the West, our conception of masculinity is very narrow,โ says fashion lecturer Sang Thai, Sherlockโs colleague at RMIT.
In Asian cultures, he continues, thereโs a long and rich tradition of men wearing skirts, and these cultures often adopt a more nuanced view of gender, rather than our rigid, polarised and often damaging binaries.
But as gender-fluid fashion takes hold, authenticity will be the greatest challenge.
โThe industry has to engage with this in a genuine and meaningful way,โ says Sherlock.
โAs with [any minority identity or community], you shouldnโt [just] design for them or take inspiration from them. There needs to be opportunities for trans and gender-diverse/non-conforming people to represent themselves โ to be included in that story, to be employed and to be in positions of power.โ
Whacking a rainbow on a pair of sneakers for Pride Week or advertising a frock for men isnโt enough if a brand isnโt doing the work behind the scenes.
โDoes the company have queer employยญees? Do they have safety guards for trans employees?โ asks Deni Todoroviฤ, activist, creative director and co-host of the What Are You Wearing podcast, addยญing that, in Australia, transgender youth aged 14-25 are 15 times more likely to attempt suicide than the genยญeral population.
โAre they working with and donating to queer charities? If not, theyโre just capitalising off a minority, and thatโs not nice.โ
Todoroviฤ points to gender-fluid British-American designer Harris Reed as a leader in the space, but says that locally they shop everywhere from Camilla to Kmart. Theyโd like to see separate menswear and womenswear sections eradicated in stores, and to โdegender fashion at every touchpointโ.
Perhaps Generation Z will lead this binary-busting charge. According to one study, half of that cohort (aged 10 to 25) believe that the gender binary is outdated.
โItโs important to remember that thereโll always be binaries and theyโre still part of the same gender spectrum,โ notes Sherlock.
โBut my Gen-Z students give me hope. Theyโre thinking about ways they can use fashยญion for positive social and cultural change, as opposed to reproducing the conventions that have gone before.โ
Today, Todoroviฤ feels energised to live a life beyond the binary, in โthe space in-betweenโ, as they like to call it.
โFor me, degendering fashion is not about erasing another personโs identity, itโs about pulling up a seat at the table so thereโs room for all of us. You have to get dressed every day, so why shouldnโt it be fun for everyone?โ
Right now, theyโre wearing basketยญball shorts, a Bonds chesty and sneakยญers, but tonight theyโll throw on a floaty dress and chunky heels. Tomorrow it could either be tailored trousers or a tulle tutu skirt.
โSome people might find that confusing but thatโs OK,โ they say. โItโs how I feel, itโs who I am.โ
This story originally appeared in the February issue of marie claire Australia.