As the LGBTQ+ community gains visibility, the gender binary seems less and less inclusive, especially when it comes to clothing. Thankfully, some designers have taken on the task of creating gender-neutral pieces for everyone, and androgynous pieces for masculine-identified women. Unfortunately, many of these brands are high-end and difficult to find, but it won’t be long until this wave makes it into the mainstream—I just know it.
1. 69 Worldwide
This provocative Los Angeles-based brand, which defines itself as a “non-gender, non-demographic clothing line,” carries comfortable and cutting-edge unisex pieces. You can find them in their Downtown LA appointment-only showroom and online.
2. Toogood London
Faye Toogood, a British interior designer, and her sister Erica, a fashion designer, started Toogood clothing more as a movement to redefine fashion than as a consumer brand. Their edgy “unisex outerwear” is available on select websites like FarFetch, but honestly we’re just obsessed with their artistic lookbooks.
3. NotEqual
The premise of NotEqual is “genderless form and individuality.” In an effort to “push boundaries while offering rational fashion,” the brand’s collections and projects include designs to die for, with bold lines, colors and patterns suitable for anyone. You can find the online shop on NotEqual’s official website.
4. TILLYAndWILLIAM
Created by designers Jessica Lapidos and Tom Barranca in Brooklyn, NY, TILLYAndWILLIAM “began as an experiment in gender neutral clothing.” The fashion collective’s minimalist designs are available online and in a handful of stores in New York and Massachusetts.
5. One DNA
All the sleek pieces in One DNA’s first ever collection, inspired by travels to Iceland, are unisex and can be worn front-to-back. They are designed to be worn year-round by “all genders, ages and races.” Talk about inclusive!
6. Marimacho
“Marimacho” is an offensive Spanish term for “butch,” essentially. In line with queer tradition, creators Crystal and Ivette González-Alé reappropriated the term to designate their “classic fashion for the unconventionally masculine.” Their suits, loungewear and colorful swimwear are meant to fit masculine-identified women better than menswear ever can.
7. Sharpe Suiting
Originally funded through Kickstarter, Sharpe tailors custom suits to the LA androgynous community, namely “butch women and trans men.” The brand even trademarked its suiting process, Andropometrics™, taking genderqueer fashion to a whole new level.
8. Rad Hourani
Canadian designer Rad Hourani describes his work as “an attentive study of the human body that celebrates neutrality as a defining human trait.” All of his simple clothes are unisex—and friggin’ gorgeous, if you ask us.
9. VEEA
VEEA is “high-end menswear fashion made to fit women.” The brand’s high-quality dress shirts are declined in tailored and loose fits and available on VEEA’s website.
10. Gender Free World
Gender Free World is a relatively new UK-based label founded in 2015 on the basis of ethical principles. The brand's mission is to fit bodies in a way that high-street clothing cannot. It's the anti "one-size-fits-all" model. Their shirts are designed with "a gender neutral sensibility to fit body shape. A looser cut with left over right buttoning and a hidden bust button to avoid gaping in the chest area."
11. Muttonhead
Muttonhead is a Toronto-based brand whose intent is to counter "fast fashion" with "slow design" and local, fair-trade manufacturing. The website and Toronto brick and mortar carry "unisex apparel made for everyone" at prices that aren't extortionate.
12. FLAVNT
FLAVNT Streetwear is an Austin brand for "men, women, and everybody in between." As the name suggests, its founders intended their clothes to promote body confidence and self-love for all—concepts that in an ideal world would have nothing to do with gender. Their cool as fuck designs are modeled by members of Central Texas' Queer community, all of whom are given proper introduction on the site, a rarity in the world of fashion.
Brands for genderqueer individuals are being created left and right, but they are still part of a marginal market and often far beyond our college budgets. At least, while you wait for unisex collections to pop up in a brick and mortar near you, you can order them online from these brands—or just stare in awe at the ones with a steeper pricetag.
