#Fashion is an industry that, despite it's seemingly symbiotic relationship with #queerness — in that the fashion world is full of queer designers, models, stylists, etc. — upholds binary notions of gender as rigorously as the most conservative industries. Clothes are for men or for women, and in some very rare (but exceedingly more common) cases they are unisex. But in 2016, a year in which we've seen transgender #models trample over societal ideals of the "perfect" body, shouldn't we be past the gendering of the rags, however beautiful, we put on our body? This past March, #Zara launched their first genderless clothing line, and the results were more than a bit "meh," largely seen as shapeless jeans and sweatshirts designed to hang limply from whatever body might want to fork over the cash for them. To Zara, their idea of genderless fashion was fashion with no identity, which is exactly what fashion isn't. #Clothing is one of the loudest ways we can proclaim who we are to the world, and Zara really took the "less" in genderless to heart. Thankfully, #brands like #TillyandWilliam are aiming to approach fashion from a perspective of gender fluidity. The brand, created by friends Tilly deWolfe and Tom Barranca in 2009, has become a hallmark of NYC more enlightened, fashionable gender deviants, those whose clothing celebrates their mercurial natures.Â
