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—we 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.
Brands for genderqueer individuals are being created left and right, but they are still part of a marginal market and far beyond our college budgets. At least, while you wait for unisex collections to pop up at Forever 21, you can swoon over these nine brands’ jaw-dropping pieces.
