INITIAL RESEARCH
DISSERTATION
Gendered Issues
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/the-meaning-of-gender-fluid-fashion
the need to distinguish
gender-fluid fashion from what is often called gender-neutral, androgynous, or
unisex fashion. Where the latter aims to disrupt established norms through
dull, often billowing garments meant to transcend suits and skirts, the former
strives toward the same goal by disentangling the normative association between
skirts and women, suits and men.
Textiles vs Materials
“Materials” and “textiles” are two words that are loaded
with questions, gender biases. They play a defining role in shaping someone’s
identity and their role in the world.
“Textiles” brings up so many images; many of us instantly
think of a woman sat behind a sewing machine making curtains or clothing.
influential queer and
trans&gnc folks in fashion:
= Charles Jeffrey
https://somethingcurated.com/2017/07/26/art-schools-eden-loweth-tom-barratt/
ART SCHOOL’s Eden Loweth
& Tom Barratt
No Sesso
Italian for “no
sex/gender,” No Sesso is the LA based fashion house founded by Pierre Davis in
2015
River Island - The
campaign plays on the washing instructions found on standard clothing labels,
with one model and body confidence activist appearing with the tagline “Do Not
Shrink”; a gay couple with the line “Do Not Separate”; and a non binary model
with the phrase “100% Gender Free”.
JW Anderson
Although website and fashion shows may be separated into
binary women and men sections, this designer is a good example of the
progression within binary fashion towards a more non-binary /unisex aesthetic
and form.
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jun/01/radical-unisex-designs-jw-anderson
“He launched
as a menswear brand, but over the years JW Anderson has presented kimono-style
coats that look a bit like dresses, jumpers hanging from the waist that look a
bit like skirts and shirts in lace so sheer they look a bit blousy.”
“Women buying his
clothes led Anderson to venture into womenswear in 2010.”
https://www.vogue.com/article/jw-anderson-combines-menswear-womenswear-2018
“his men’s and women’s collections have functioned as two
sides of the same coin”
Additional Resources
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=413&v=nFUvLNL7E8Q&feature=emb_title
The Future is Fluid – GUCCI – 2019
Julia Falkner
and Lorena Hydeman document boys playing with gender for the first time
The point of the styling element of this project was to
give the boys the tools with which to express themselves,” she adds. “In one
instance, we asked Rio to pick one item from his mum’s wardrobe to wear and he
came back wearing her wedding corset with his basketball shorts.”
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Smoking
Created
in 1966 by famous couturier Yves Saint
Laurent,[1] the Le Smoking tuxedo suit
for women was the first of its kind to earn attention in the fashion world and
in popular culture.
4 How Gender Fluidity affected the Fashion World Today
5 Navigating the internet as a non-binary designer
https://fossheim.io/writing/posts/non-binary-design/
6 TurboTax Gender-Neutral Redesign:
Inclusive Design Journey
Feb 21,
2019 (Ian Cameron)
READING LIST
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJRDM-12-2019-0392/full/html
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17547075.2018.1516437
GENDER
POLITICS AND SOCIAL THEORY
Sylvia Walby, Vol. 22, No. 2 (May, 1988)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42854082
http://www.blackwomenrhetproject.com/
JUDITH
FASHION
http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/8800/1/include_hilton_.pdf
It would seem that some elements of world-view and self-perception
may actually be ingrained in the individual during initial personality
development, (Dittmar [2]), and while these individuals may be able to
‘intellectualise about what could be’, their language may constrain their
‘thinking about what is accepted’.
= O’Keefe, T. (1999). Sex, Gender & Sexuality. 21st
Century Transformations. London: Exraordinary People = sex, gender and
sexuality are fluid concepts
= Hilton, K. H. (2008). Reliability of Emotional Responses
to Material Textures = Gender Fluidity Cube = Personality determinants in the
definition of where an individual may place themselves on the cube, eg. ‘Phillic’
may mean they are attracted to the extremes, while ‘phobic’ may mean they are
repelled by the extremes.
= ] Grogan, S. (1999). Body Image. Understanding body
dissatisfaction in men, women and children. London: Routledge, Dittmar = suggested that with the need to
relate to body image issues, phallic and empathic individuals may perform
levels of mimicry to engage in social and environmental changes. These
individuals may be seen as more ‘fluid’.
= Butler = Gender is
not a given in a genetic sense, but may be a learned or chosen social behaviour
= Dittmar = Consumerism
develops the belief that new could lead to a better quality of life, and
therefore encourages a want for change and diversity
= To communicate
gender fluidity products and services that reflect changes quickly are needed
= Clothing is the
most important personal media in communicating change
= Menswear is useful
vehicle to discuss change as it has less freedom of expression than women’s
wear
FASHION
= Garments worn by
both men and women are distinguished as either masculine or feminine through
the choice of fabric, structure, detailing, and how they are worn. Their
descriptive language reinforces this, eg. Shirt, blouse.
= (K. H.
Hilton) created a set of garments, two
casual wear and two occasional wear, which aimed to gain understanding around
the level of change they could create in perceptions and expression of gender
fluidity
= General response was
that those items with more masculine cuts, colours and textures were still read
as feminine garments.
= (article)
unfamiliar garments are categorised as feminine
= informal interview
with gender fluid individuals showed the diversity of needs and desires: Some
don’t want to be mistakenly categorised as the opposite sex, with fluidity not
exclusively a conscious behaviour, whole others consciously decide which gender
to perform that day.
Ø Clothing that is created as androgynous means
it can be worn by everyone. Although not everyone will want to wear an item, it
is available to all.
Ø Colour theory, semiotics (meaning), form etc.
that presents this androgyny
= If the ‘persona’ created
by the product or service is strong enough, the customer or individual may
experience a sense of change of identity to fit (] Dittmar, H. (2007).
Consumer Culture, Identity and Well-Being: The search for the ‘Good Life’ and
the ‘Body Perfect’. Hove: Psychology Press
= Could argue that
garments can function as an agent of change
= (article) feminine
body language was assumed to be natural, rather than as a result if constraints
and influences of garments made for women. Some garments are being worn for how
they look, rather than feel or perform, eg. Skirt has not practical use, which
could explain why more women wear trousers, while skirts may be worn to
celebrate femininity, as it’s deemed attractive and as it’s ‘allowed’ for women
to do so
= more blatant cues
= body language eg. Posture and movement = individuals may also gain pleasure
from enacting exaggerated social stereotypes
= Garber = numerous
investigations have shown that it is mostly heterosexual men who wear women’s
clothing
= Labelling simplifies our world view and makes it
easier and faster to make decisions, but constrains our perceptions and
development into having more effective understandings
= DILEMMA = creating the perception that masculine and feminine gender qualities
are separate to the male and female sex
= Connell, R.
W. (2005). Masculinities. 2nd Edition. pp 67. Cambridge: Polity = masculinity is not a concept held by all
cultures
= body hair has
significance in western culture in regards to men expressing femininity = a man
with body hair in a dress is not read by a woman “but as overtly ambiguous”
CONNOTATIONS IN
CLOTHING
= Choice of fabric =
eg. Shiny may suggest glamour, while dull may suggest utility
= Colours = pastels
are changing their feminine connotations, whereas dark colours in western
society suggest dominance
= fabric drape =
stiffness masculine, fluidity and clinginess feminine
(69 brand look at!)
https://www.notjustalabel.com/69-sixtynine
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TECHNOLOGY - UX
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305116672486
= Cultural spaces mobilise gender eg. Popular culture,
politics, sport, retail. Computer programmers also have a role, with their design
decisions and the software creating assumptions and values.
= Balsamo
(2011) noted, “through the practices of designing, cultural
beliefs are materially reproduced, identities are established, and social
relations are codified” (p. 3).
= The rendering of gender as a category itself influences
how we perceive and identify ourselves
= Cheney-Lippold
(2011) argues, “we are entering an online world where our
identifications are largely made for us” (p. 165).
https://forty8creates.com/gender-neutral-design/
Gender
Neutral Design
Mariana Magalhães
07 February 20
“We
are living in a time of gender revolution” – Metropolis
1.
Avoidance of Gender Colour Stereotype and
Association
= Pink and Blue for girls and boys
respectively
= 1920s trend inverted and before this, pink
was seen as a boys colour due to the associations with Christian tradition and
classical paintings
= Blue was connected with Virgin Mary and
therefore linked to girls
= Blue work/naval uniforms in the 1920s
subverted this
Ø GENDER
NEUTRAL COLOURS: Disruption of pre-existing stereotypical gender styles
Ø Pink and
Blue is avoided even in the context not associated with gender, or if they are
used they are muted tonalities
2.
Typography
= Stylistic effects are associated to women and men eg. Decorated,
cursive fonts tend to be associated to the female gender whereas geometric,
sharp fonts are associated with the male gender
= Some
‘classical’ fonts are not associated to gender, as Mariana Magalhães (2020) argues, Helvetica may
be the most popular gender-neutral typeface
= Variations of Helvetica can still
connotate gender eg. Ultra-light could be deemed feminine while Helvetica extra
appearing masculine
3. Imagery
= Imagery
supporting gender inclusivity pictures more than one gender and doesn’t present
stereotypical gender norms
= Advertising
as an area is in need of greater inclusivity eg. Dove typically depicts light,
soft imagery with its feminine products, while Gillet targets their male
audience by resourcing imagery that is dark, intense and bold
= awareness of
stereotype cliches is important in tackling them and producing more
gender-neutral imagery
= Emphasis on product
functionality is one common denominator of gender-neutral imagery eg. Aesop
Eg. Burberry (Riccardo
Tisci) responsible for popularising neutrality in mainstream fashion. Designs
use muted toned colours and the campaign alludes to androgynous models
= Androgyny can
be used to communicate non-binary gender identification or to avoid gender
stereotyping but does not necessarily present full inclusivity
Icons
= Gender
neutral icons tend to use a neutral colour or gradient and are made up of
outlines
= This avoids colour
stereotyping with colour
Gender-neutral
glyphs
= Glyphs are
engraved into society, eg. toilets, which makes them challenging to alter and additionally
ensure they are recognisable
Gender
Design in the Future
= Is colour
stereotype and gender targeting going to vanish in a few years or is gender
neutrality an ephemeral trend?
=
fear of alienating consumers pushes companies to develop gender neutral assets
Judith Butler Gender Trouble
Chp. Gender:
the circular ruins of contemporary debate
= Do
individuals ‘have’ a gender or is it an attribute people are said to ‘be’?
= “feminist
theorists claim that gender is the cultural interpretation of sex or that
gender is culturally constructed” pg. 10
= if
constructed, is this construction socially determined, which could therefore prevent
the possibility of “agency and transformation”
= Gender
therefore becomes fixed within the formulations produced within culture, not
biology.
= Simone de
Beauvoir “one is not born a woman, but, rather, becomes one.” (The Second Sex
p.301)
= Beauvoir
implies gender is constructed, and therefore that there is an agent that
appropriates that gender
= “Can ‘construction’
in such a case be reduced to a form of choice?”
= Nowhere in
Beauvoir’s account does it suggest the individual who “becomes a woman is
necessarily female” (p. 11)
Chp.
Theorising the binary, the unitary, and beyond
= Those not
cis-heterosexual binary individuals can all be grouped together in the
classification of “the Other” (pg. 19) to expand and rationalise the
“masculinist domain”
= there are
women who have criticised the category of “women” as normative and exclusionary
=
The insistence on the unity of the category of women has prevented inclusivity through
the “multiplicity of cultural, social and political intersections” (19)
FILMS AND
DOCUMENTARIES
BBC Beyond
Binary
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03r8pgf
Beyond Gender: The Identity of Fashion. Full Event
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WHYlw3g6zE
Is Fashion becoming gender non-binary? I-D
“A new generation is moving towards genuine fluidity” Munroe
Bergdorf
= oversized t-shirts made her feel like she was wearing a
dress = middle ground between ‘masculine’ tshirt and ‘feminine’ dress
= showing women’s wear ay the men’s fashion fashion week “in
doing that they’re saying that these clothes don’t need to be for women”
“gender-neutral conversation [art school] pushed forward”
“when people start removing labels the fashion industry will
follow” (needs to come
from all areas to influence other areas, cant rely on one sector)
“removing that [gender] from fashion will allow people a
space to explore themselves even further” -Timothy Gibbons
Art school spring summer 2018
WHAT DOES
NON-BINARY LOOK LIKE?
(28/09/2020 ORIGINALLY
PUBLISHED ON 14 NOVEMBER 2019, 1:00
“many non-binary people, playing
around with your appearance can be a way to explore and communicate your gender
identity – but not always”
Ben Pechey “dressing
is an emotional exchange."
“that you need to look a
certain way to be non-binary is so harmful.”
"Despite this fact, it can
be hard not to internalise pressure to look androgynous.”
(May be more appropriate to design clothing for specific
individuals from the gender-fluid scale, as creating a line for gender-fluid
people with androgynous intentions may leave some people out. Perhaps
approaching the fashion design task more loosely and produce items which mix
and blend between feminine and masculine and all in between so that there is
something for everyone.)
ð Article
talks to a variety of different individuals who identify as non-binary and it
really enforces the range of experiences and self-identifications there are eg.
Tom Pashby who works in parliament plays around with all clothing and adheres
to no specific gendered clothing, while Devin dressed androgynously to prevent
being misgendered as a woman, but found this difficult with her curves.
Gender-less or Gender-more? Addressing gender in product
branding
13
September 2017
(28/09/2020)
=
Western Society has seen huge rise in prominence of non-binary gender
identification
=
Brands are adapting in response to this shift
=
Androgynous aesthetic is becoming more mainstream, but it poses the question,
will it fizzle out in a few years, and do we need to make fundamental change in
order to ensure the longevity of a more inclusive future in genderless brand
design?
=
Critique of Nike lionesses design made to inspire a generation of new players
to “wear what you are”. Felt that to misplace the symbol of the lion on gender
at all rather than the skill of the team was counterintuitive. Creating a
different emblem for women in general rather than one for everyone of all
genders also misdirected the original intention
=
Brands sustaining and conforming to gender stereotypes “are inadvertently
alienating whole communities of people”, including consumers who do identify as
male or female and will grow to have less tolerance to this type of branding
=
CHANGES FOR MORE EQUAL
FUTURE
=
Advertising agencies are reviewing their approaches to advertisements that
feature gender stereotypes
=
Big names in advertising agency = Unilever alliance with UN women to eliminate prevalence
of stereotypes
=
2015 The Cannes Lion Award created the Glass Lion to recognise work addressing
issues of prejudice and gender inequality
PACKAGING
-
Aesop
= values and attitudes rather than gender
-
Basik
= project focussing on completely gender-neutral packaging
= Ironic play on gender stereotyping in Cards Against Humanity which features a pink box for 5 extra dollars, of which the profit goes to charity tackling the ‘pink tax’.
WHAT DESIGNERS + BRANDS SHOULD NOT DO
=
Gender differentiation can not be fully eradicated. Designers should question
if and why products need to be directed towards a particular gender or not, and
design with an understanding of the needs of people who don’t identify as
either male or female
=
Brands can be deemed insincere if they change their messaging to stay on trend
without understanding the community properly
=
Brands need to address people as individuals and human beings with less
emphasis on their gender
(further reason to create products in
physical side for specific people or no specific aesthetic)
COP DESIGN RESEARCH
= Patrick Church =
Printed textiles into clothing = more focus on design rather than fashion
How can design be
used to support and empower non-binary identities??
1 design as a whole
2 how can design be
gender biased
3 fashion as a form for self-expression for identity
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