Unisex, Genderless: Let the Debate Ensue

Abstract

Fashion communication has adopted a decidedly political language of late. This is particularly evident in the ongoing debate about gender and clothing. While clothes, per se, have no definite gender connotations, on a symbolic level clothes do actually hold specific gender connotations. In the current climate of ongoing deconstruction of old norms, the notion of genderless has become central to the global aesthetic and cultural debate, to much media fervor. The essay analyzes the very idea of genderless in comparison to the notion of unisex which surfaced during the 1970s, another moment of intense cultural deconstruction. By dissecting the two terms and related fashion imagery, the essay highlights the changes in the way fashion both communicates and acts, leaving the ending deliberately open.

Keywords

• unisex
• genderless
• communication
• symbology
• theatricalization