Gender fluid fashion is nothing new. However, the looks and fits that come with it in 2023 are.
In this blog we'll take you through the hottest gender fluid trends for 2023, and how to incorporate them into your gender fluid moodboard.
In summary:
Read on for more in-depth content on the process and more example genderfluid outfits.
One of the most exciting names in gender fluid fashion at the moment is Harris Reed, a 25-year-old designer who has enjoyed huge success since graduating from Central Saint Martins. His gender fluid outfits and clothes have been worn by celebrities such as Harry Styles and Emma Corrin and include suits, blouses and tiered dresses 👗
Deliberately genderless, they have struck a chord with an audience keen to blur the binaries of fashion and wear clothes and outfits that channel and inner feeling at the time, rather than preconceived gender identities.
An early community member of Make the Dot and current fashion student in Paris, explained to us this summer that gender fluid fashion and gender fluid aesthetic is a huge part of the school curriculum, where students are encouraged to think in genderless fashion terms when ideating their collection.
In essence, gender fluid fashion are garments that aren't limited by the traditional “menswear” and “womenswear” binary. Instead, the idea is that any given outfit completely disregards the association between pants and men, skirts and women and so on. In fact, experts say genderfluid outfits have little, if anything, to do with the brands, designers and retailers that create them. Instead, they argue, any piece of apparel can be gender fluid if its wearer so chooses.
Think of T-shirts that have become crop tops or skirts depending on the wearer 👕
Black masculinities scholar Nalo Zidan, a designer with Yazi Clothing, explains that shoppers should seek out cut and fit, ignoring the gendered buckets on the clothes' labels or shelves.
“I think about a place that sells jeans, like Levi's: If I went in and am just looking for a certain cut and a certain size, I would go for that cut and size whether or not it said ‘men’s’ or ‘women's’ over it”. It's because I'm looking for a particular fit to my body to help me express my sense of style. A designer's focus should be getting the clothes on bodies to be right in relation to sizing.”
However, while these designs have blurred the lines between what we often deem “masculine” and “feminine”, as well as encouraging a more outlandish way of dressing, the idea genderfluid outfits isn’t entirely new.
In reality, gender fluid fashion and genderfluid outfits has existed for thousands of years before the constructs of the modern fashion world took hold.
High heels were originally designed for men, while makeup was been worn by both men and women as far back as 2000BC in ancient Egypt and Greece 🏛
Another example is Yves Saint Laurent, who was renowned for being the designer who put women in trousers and shook the industry with his 'Le Smoking' women’s tuxedo suit in 1966.
Other artists such as, David Bowie and Grace Jones were a few of the trendsetting artists and musicians who have been pushing gender norms and genderfluid outfits in fashion for decades.
Now we’ve learnt a little more about what is gender fluid fashion and its history, it’s time to begin creating gender fluid moodboard 🖼
A full list off the online sources we'd recommend below.
Top Tip! Start with a fashion moodboard template, to make the process even quicker and easier.
In order to create a gender fluid moodboard, the designer needs a digital moodboard maker, and for this there are a few tools on the market today.
An online app and image database popular with fashion designers the world over. Its rich fashion database and imagery makes it easy to collect images and make a moodboard online
A hit with general designers both novice and experienced. Canva’s free tier and template library allows users the ability to create fashion moodboards online in a simple and easy way
(cough cough) Make the Dot is the all-in-one moodboard maker, built and focused specifically on fashion designers. Our free forever app and fashion specific features give designers the ability to create fashion moodboards fast, from dragging and dropping content to presenting themes.
The final part of the moodboarding process involves deciding on a set of ideas and themes for your gender fluid fashion moodboard and then starting to build up content that fits in with that.
For my board below, I linked the themes of space, classic black suits and the iconic 90s film, Men in Black. Personally, the classic black suit and white shirt is one of my earliest memories of gender fluidity in fashion, so I wanted to play on that theme during the process, and link those black hues with the brighter complementary colours found in the universe 🪐
Check out more moodboard examples in our template gallery.
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For our other content on the moodboard process check them out below.
