Zendaya Shows Off Gender Neutral Fashion. But What Is It?
It looks as if quaint notions like gender will soon be a thing of the past as academics and other members of the liberal movement strive to embrace ever greater gender diversity. We’ve seen arguments over bathrooms in school as well as who should and who should not be allowed to get married. The range of genders on offer has exploded, and now there are more than 100 at the latest count.
How this movement would affect the world of fashion, which has been separated on the grounds of male and female genders, was unclear. But now some designers have decided to make it their business to offer fashion lines that are gender neutral.
One such entrepreneur is Zendaya, the 20-year-old actress who has said that she launched the fashion clothing line in order to help make fashion more inclusive. She hopes that the new gender neutral clothing she is offering to the market will find a home among people who are yet to make up their minds what gender they actually want to be.
Zendaya’s motivation for the brand was for greater openness in fashion. She hopes that it will offer an alternative for people who are currently questioning or don’t want to be associated with any particular gender. Or at least that’s the spin she’s putting on it.
Although some might find her objectives noble, there’s no doubting that Zendaya is a shrewd business woman. She knew that the moment that she launched a gender-neutral fashion line, the world’s media would be all over it. Gender is the flavor of the month right now, and her latest business venture will be swooned over by left-leaning outlets and condemned by the right.
Of course, going gender neutral doesn’t have to be a massive statement. Far from it. In fact, it’s something that has been going on for decades before Zendaya launched her new line of clothing. For instance, gender-neutral clothing has been a feature of outdoor clothing for a long time. Practicality was always the overriding factor in the sector. Timberland, for example, allows people to customize their own shoe designs in any way they want. And when paired with Timberland coupons, prices are a lot more reasonable than Zendaya’s Daya lineup. What’s more, fashion doesn’t always have to be about gender anyway. In the past, fashion was less about the individual wearing the clothes and more about what the clothing represented about their community. For instance, ceremonial uniforms were never about gender: they were able celebrating and upholding the dignity of an institution.
Gender neutral fashion might be here to stay, but it’s something that has always been with us. It’s just that now we’re going to be seeing it on the catwalk modeled by people who already look androgynous. Zendaya says that she will be wearing pieces from her own collection. But given her history on the red carpet, it’s unlikely that she’ll remain gender-neutral for long. All of her clothes so far have been statements about her gender.