Gender fluidness
And the category is gender fluidness! I wanted to write about this topic because I find that gender fluidity should be fully integrated in every society. Perhaps this is an image that is stuck within my mind and perhaps is far from reality. Therefore I think we need to keep talking about gender fluidness!
I remember when little me was growing up I always wanted to be a girl. Not that I felt like a girl but I found girls just fascinating. They had prettier hair and nicer clothes and dresses. So as a little boy I remember I told my mother that I wanted to be a girl, while I was drawing a princess in a big dress and long curly hair on the fogged window of the kitchen backdoor. This was 38 years ago. This image of myself I will carry with me for the rest of my life. It also became part of my signature as a designer and therefore a very important part of who I am and perhaps a part I will never stop investigating. I call it my feminine me within my male appearance. For me they together evolved as an important symbioses where both genders create a neutral territory.
What is gender fluidity?
Gender fluidity refers to change over time in a person’s gender expression or gender identity, or both. That change might be in expression, but not identity, or in identity, but not expression. Or both expression and identity might change together.
I don’t describe myself as being gender fluid, I have the feeling I just listen very well to my inner feminine voice. I am male in appearance but I never hardly think of what gender I am. Just when I am confronted in simple things like going to the toilet or looking at my drivers license or passport or when I look in the mirror. The rest is just neutral territory for me which I think is very liberating.
Unified genders in fashion
Because I find this liberating feeling very important, I wanted to incorporate this neutral feeling within my work and create a space for it. This space can be found in our no gender label ‘Unified’.
Within this neutral territory we create fashion items that carry the no gender standard. Here gender is fluid and goes hand in hand with each other as the symbioses does within me. There are no boundaries and no limits. Every launch we try to reach out to the max and evolve beyond our last editions. Our latest, and perhaps the item I am most proud of, is the ruffled chiffon genderless dress in shades of greens and goldwork embroidery applications. This unique and one of a kind piece we showed at the finale of our runway presentation. We hope this item will get the gender fluidity topic going and will heat up some discussions about genderless fashion.
