What is unisex fashion and how did it appear?
Well, unisex fashion actually means that the sex has nothing to do with the particular sphere, in our case in fashion. In other words, the concrete and particular sphere does not differentiate between sexes. Therefore it brings the idea that male and female are the same, they are equal and that in our case, and the fashion industry should not differentiate between male and female.
So it is quite logical that the idea of unsexes and unisex fashion has strong ties with feminism movement. Why is it so? First of all as we know there were some major problems concerning the women freedom. Women were underestimated and faced inequality against men, and the feminist movement was actually aimed at making men and women equal, and was aimed to reach the equality and freedom of men and women, and a human being despite his or her gender.
As the feminist movement appeared it highly affected the fashion industry also. This is actually how the idea of unisex fashion was brought up. The designers started to design unisex clothes that could be worn both by men and women.
So one thing we can state for sure was that the unisex fashion was influenced by feminist movement.
Actually the idea of unisex fashion dates back to 20 century, however, in reality it goes even far than it. The first appearance of unisex fashion or unisex clothing dates back to 19 century, during the times of Victorian dress reform.
Before the unisex appeared the clothes were designed in uncomfortable way for women. The reason is that women were supposed to be less active than men. Women did not work so much, and were usually at home. This was the image of women in 19 century in most of the European countries, while men has the image of strong, active and working people, who had to wear comfortable clothes. This was before women were given the right to work. After women got the permission to work in France, in Britain and in America, the clothes for women also were designed in order to make it easy for women to move and to work.
At first it was really hard for men to accept that women can be equal with them and it was harder to see women in trousers and in other staff that was more known to be describing the male wardrobe rather than the female one.
Then in history appeared the idea of “alternative dress” or non-conformist costume, which is a term technically used for the items, typical to men clothing, that appeared to be in female clothes.
Eventually, the unisex clothing or unisex fashion become widely spread and widely used in 1960. As we understood the unisex clothing was very much influenced by the Victorian dress reform and my feminist movement. The unisex clothing is a part of feminist movement, because wearing unisex clothes; you assume that there is equality between men and women, and that they both can wear the same cloth. So unisex clothing is more than just clothes designed for both male and female. Unisex clothing is a deep ideology and a vision of life.
Nowadays, in 21st century, things has changed a lot, and nearly every woman wears trousers and cloth attributes that were more typical to men rather than to women. However, things went much far than that. Nowadays, unisex clothes identify women wearing the masculine kind of clothes, but also men wearing the feminine ones.
Today we see more and more guys having earrings on their ears, or wearing rings. As we know earrings and rings were always known to be women accessories, but nowadays this things has also changed.
Today we live in a mixed world where people, either men or women, can wear whatever they want and however they want, because this is an era of freedom and this is what the unisex fashion is all about.
Some people still are afraid or scared of wearing unisex clothes, because they feel that the public opinion may somehow affect them. On the other hand, the unisex cloth is not accepted in all the countries and in all the cultures.
For example in more developed countries, like in European countries, in USA, In West it is much more accepted than in South, in East. Most of the Arabic countries do not accept this kind of lifestyle, because unisex is a lifestyle, and it is much different and very far from their culture, which promotes inequality between men and women.
In any case, if you want to wear unisex clothes, if you find them comfortable and suitable for you, then go for it and wear it because unisex is not just a fashion, but a lifestyle.
