Application and trend analysis of gender neutrality in clothing

1.1 The application of gender neutrality in clothing design
         Compared with traditional clothing, the silhouettes of gender-neutral clothing performed by women are mostly loose, straight, H-shaped, T-shaped, and other macro silhouettes that do not show female characteristics, while the silhouettes of gender-neutral clothing performed by men are mostly designed with micro silhouettes, such as draping on the chest, cross straps, hollowing, and other micro silhouette design techniques.The silhouettes of traditional women's clothing use slim-fitting cuts such as A-shaped and X-shaped silhouettes to highlight the curves of women's bodies and emphasize the lines of the chest and hips.
        The 2024 CHANEL early spring resort series is a typical traditional women's clothing.As shown in Figures 1 to 3, they are all typical traditional women's clothing silhouette design styles. Traditional women's clothing pays more attention to the beauty of women's curves in the design of silhouettes. Figure 1 is an A-shaped dress. This silhouette is used in traditional women's clothing design. While enhancing the female characteristics, it changes the proportion and shape of the entire body, making the overall state appear more slender. At the same time, this clothing is matched with a low-cut round neck structure, which makes the clothing full of femininity. Figures 2 and 3 are X-shaped clothing silhouettes. Pleats and belts are added to the shoulders and hips to achieve the effect of tightening the waist, making the whole body present an X-shaped outline.

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       When women perform non-sexist clothing silhouettes, they are loose-cut, straight-tube, H-shaped, and T-shaped macro silhouettes, which cover the wearer's body curves and show obvious male characteristics. Compared with traditional women's clothing, NEHERA uses loose silhouettes in the 2024 early spring resort series to show the beauty of comfort. Figure 4 shows a T-shaped suit, which exaggerates the width of the upper body shoulders, making the whole body present a T-shaped outline. Figure 5 is an H-shaped silhouette. This design emphasizes the parallel sense between the upper and lower body, making the whole body present an H-shaped outline and hiding the body curves. In the Gucci show of the 2023 autumn and winter high-end ready-to-wear, loose silhouettes and straight-tube silhouettes are mostly used. As shown in Figure 6, a loose wide-shouldered suit jacket is paired with loose straight jeans. The simple cutting method emphasizes the streamline and comfort of the clothing, making the body outline appear slender, showing an independent and confident aura. When women interpret gender-neutral clothing, the design focuses on the macro silhouette of clothing. The silhouette is often simple and generous H-shaped, which weakens gender characteristics. In recent years, in the design of neutral style clothing, in addition to using H-shaped and T-shaped outlines alone, there are also cases of combining and crossing with other outlines to form new outlines and increase the interest of the design. The silhouette design of gender-neutral clothing focuses on comfort and casualness, so loose silhouette design has become one of its important characteristics. In women's clothing, loose silhouette design can cover the curves of women's bodies, making the whole person look more natural and casual. This independent, strong, and to some extent, role-changing clothing style is called "new feminism".

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       Traditional men's clothing designs often use H-shaped and T-shaped silhouettes, reflecting the masculinity and solemnity of men. In Givenchy's 2024 spring and summer series show, men's clothing is presented in a subtle and simple silhouette style, showing the steady and powerful image of men. Figures 7 and 8 are traditional H-shaped men's clothing, which adopts a straight silhouette and emphasizes simple and neat lines, making the whole body present an H-shaped outline. This silhouette is usually used in formal wear and business wear. As shown in Figure 9, it shows a strong T-shaped feature. In order to pursue the beauty of a strong body, men widen the shoulder silhouette and match it with slim pants.
       In terms of styling details, men's clothing absorbs the decorative details of women's clothing, and shows the richness and artistic sense of clothing through different composition methods, design techniques and craftsmanship. Compared with traditional men's clothing, the non-sexist clothing silhouette interpreted by men presents micro-profile processing under the internal structure such as chest drape, cross straps, and hollowing. The focus of clothing silhouette design is also mainly on micro-profile design, which weakens the serious and tough feeling of men's clothing from the detailed modeling, making it soft and beautiful. In the 2024 SAINT LAURENT spring and summer series, the use of flowing fabrics makes the clothing silhouette fluid, and the off-shoulder top adds an elegant charm, as shown in Figures 10 and 11. The use of broad shoulders with waist contour proportions, draped elements, and chest drape, cross straps, hollowing and other designs are boldly used in men's formal wear, emphasizing the free interaction between traditional male and traditional female elements, revealing an elegant temperament. In the 2024 spring and summer series of Egonlab, the designer focused on the special treatment of the internal structure. As shown in Figure 12, the oblique collar is matched with a shirt with hollow sleeves, the waist is slightly narrowed, and the dotted bias-cut inner wear is exposed. The rich details create a delicate clothing effect. Through the analysis of the non-sexist male performance show, it is concluded that compared with traditional men's clothing, the silhouette of non-sexist clothing is mainly the change of local details, that is, the micro-silhouette, which weakens the need to change the proportion of the human body.

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1.2 The development trend of gender-neutral clothing silhouette
          The development trend of gender-neutral clothing silhouette is to continuously advance towards gender equality, liberalization of dressing and personalized aesthetics. There are three reasons for this:
    1) As people’s gender consciousness weakens, gender-neutral clothing breaks the traditional gender stereotype, promotes the free choice and equal rights of men and women in dressing, and provides everyone with a more free, diverse and inclusive clothing environment.
    2) Freedom of dressing means that people can show their unique style and identity through clothing. The change in social thinking consciousness means that people pay more attention to their own psychological needs and their own sense of belonging, which determines the need for individuals to make independent decisions on their own dressing style[9]. Clothing should not only pursue fashion and beauty, but also functionality, practicality and comfort will become factors that cannot be ignored in clothing design.
    3) The silhouette of gender-neutral clothing is moving in a bolder direction, and more shows even show the situation of swapping clothing styles between the two sexes to express distinct personalities.

2 Application and trend analysis of gender neutrality in clothing fabrics
2.1 Design application of gender neutrality in clothing fabrics
       In the selection of non-sexist clothing fabrics, it is not limited to the clothing styles and characteristics of traditional gender consciousness. The fabric materials present personalized and comfortable, diversified visual aesthetic effects, and the bold use of clothing materials highlights the temperament and attitude of clothing. In the selection of fabrics for traditional clothing, due to the physiological differences and social division of labor in traditional concepts, traditional clothing norms emphasize the role of both sexes. Women should have the feminine beauty of virtuousness, gentleness, and lightness, and tend to choose thin, soft, and smooth fabrics, such as silk, chiffon, lace, etc. to show the graceful figure, as shown in Figure 13. The flowing tulle is dotted with gorgeous rhinestone embroidery, showing the curves of the human body. Men need to show the masculine beauty of stability, solemnity, and strength. The choice of clothing is usually relatively heavy and strong, such as coarse cotton, denim, wool, etc., which are suitable for outdoor labor. As shown in Figure 14, the tough leather jacket with loose thin suits is elegant and tough for men.

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 2.2 The development trend of non-sexist clothing in terms of fabrics
       The application scope of non-sexist clothing fabrics is developing in a more diversified direction and combining with modern technology to highlight the spirit of the times. There are two reasons:
1) People have a clearer self-awareness, and the pursuit of a unique clothing style has become an inevitable result. In the past, traditional gender role stereotypes played a restrictive role in clothing design. However, with the change of social concepts and the improvement of people's cognition, more and more people have begun to realize that gender should not be the only factor that determines the style of clothing. This improvement in self-awareness has promoted the rise of non-sexist clothing and made the scope of application of fabrics more diverse.
2) With the continuous improvement of textile level and science and technology, more and more new fabrics are applied to clothing design. These fabrics not only meet the basic comfort and durability of clothing, but also have more breakthroughs in fashion. The advancement of modern technology has made the research and development and manufacturing of fabrics more refined and innovative. They can not only meet the individual's requirements for comfort and quality, but also interpret the individual's unique style and fashion attitude with their unique texture and expressiveness.
          Nowadays, fabrics are tools used to express the effect of clothing. The diversified visual aesthetic effects show the temperament and attitude of clothing through the bold use of clothing materials. Designers often combine or even mix various materials, and use unconventional materials and traditional clothing fabrics to create a unique style. At the same time, in terms of fabric processing, such as in the SAINT LAURENT 2024 spring and summer series, the tops of formal suit pants are treated with a variety of details such as chest drapes, cross straps, hollowing, pleating, and printing, reflecting the idea of ​​coexistence of freedom and diversity. In the modern society where the pace of update is accelerating and technology is advanced, designers no longer change clothing styles based on cultural trends, but more based on feelings to seek a clothing style that can bring a new look and new feeling, and gender-neutralism just brings new inspiration to designers. Gender-neutral fashion emphasizes individuality and freedom, so trend-chasing and fashionable gender-neutralists integrate current popular elements into clothing performance. According to design inspiration and aesthetic needs, designers add more details and possibilities to clothing through the integration of decorative techniques and materials. Therefore, personalized high-tech fabrics gradually appear on gender-neutral clothing. For example, the most representative gender-neutral brand THOMBROWNE2024 resort series MENSWEAR features a silver reflective high-tech material clothing, sports jacket with suit and skirt, full of contradictions and conflicts.

3 Application and trend analysis of gender neutrality in clothing colors
3.1   Design application of gender neutrality in clothing colors
     In terms of color selection, gender-neutral clothing has rich and bold colors, which not only improves the color saturation, but also combines with modern trends to create unique gender-neutral clothing in the new century. It is no longer like traditional clothing that only interprets the gender feelings of clothing through color. There are obvious gender differences in the choice of color for traditional clothing. In the 68 cases of ELIE SAAB2023 autumn and winter haute couture, 45% of women's clothing is romantic and gentle light colors, and the high-saturation colors of dark red, dark green, and dark purple account for only 20% and reduce the brightness. The four sets of men's clothing are all black. It can be concluded that traditional women's clothing mostly uses gentle and ladylike colors such as light pink and beige, as shown in Figures 15 and 16. These colors can create a dreamy and elegant atmosphere, which is in line with women's pursuit of romance. Traditional men's clothing uses neutral colors such as black, gray, and white, as shown in Figure 17. These colors give people a sense of stability, simplicity, and classicism, which are suitable for showing men's strength and confidence.
         In the concept of genderlessness, showing a unique style and expressing self-worth is the greatest charm of clothing. The use of high-saturation colors and innovative matching forms give new feelings to the first visual of clothing. From the 47 cases of LOUIS VUITTON2022 autumn and winter high-end ready-to-wear, dark colors such as black, dark blue, and dark brown are used in each set of clothing, with a large area of ​​48%, and the remaining 52% are dark colors used in small areas. In addition, each set of clothing is embellished with bright colors such as bright red, light yellow, peach pink, and orange red. For example, as shown in Figure 18, a brown jacket is paired with high-saturation yellow pants, a white shirt with a patterned tie, and a black handbag, which has rich layered color contrast; as shown in Figure 19, light brown casual pants are paired with a bright red jacket and black leather shoes to form a contrast; as shown in Figure 20, the light brown jacket makes the orange inner wear inside more vivid. The strong color contrast easily creates a noble and individual sense of fashion. The combination of regular geometric patterns and colors not only reflects rigor, but also forms a rich combination. Bright colors or colors with strong contrast have a strong visual impact when combined with geometric effects. The sense of order of regular geometry with color collision also shows the breakthrough of genderless concepts. Genderless clothing rarely uses concrete patterns, but rather abstracts and restructures the patterns. As shown in Figure 21, designers use the "combination of conflicting aesthetics" of abstract geometric images and high-saturation blue to express their inner emotions and feelings. Abstract patterns have no clear physical boundaries or restrictions, and they can flow and change freely. In the 49 cases of the SAINTLAURENT 2024 Spring and Summer Show, as shown in Figure 22, the clothing used a large area of ​​black, and as shown in Figure 23, 16% of the clothing patterns were full of polka dots, and as shown in Figure 24, leopard print elements were used to express the mystery and sophistication that the brand wants to convey to consumers.

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3.2 The development trend of color in gender-neutral clothing
       The color of gender-neutral clothing is developing towards high saturation and personalization. Gender-neutral clothing begins to boldly use richer and more diverse colors. From deep earth tones to bright high saturation colors, from soft neutral colors to saturated contrasting colors, gender-neutral clothing gradually breaks the stereotyped cognition of specific colors and advocates the free choice of colors. Personalization is also an important direction for the development of gender-neutral clothing colors. Designers begin to use color as a way to express personal style and identity. Elements such as color matching and pattern printing in clothing are cleverly used to present a unique aesthetic.
       Through research, the reasons for the formation of this color trend are that, on the one hand, in the past few decades, the increase in women's participation in work and social life and the pursuit of gender equality have promoted the diversification of women's clothing colors. Women gradually accept more neutral and highly saturated colors, such as red, green and orange, to highlight their confidence and independence. At the same time, men also abandon the solidified aesthetics and begin to try some brighter and softer colors, such as light pink, light blue and bright yellow. On the other hand, with the popularization of the concept of gender equality, many people have begun to reflect on traditional gender role stereotypes and advocate free choice. This has had an impact on the colors of men's and women's clothing. More and more people believe that clothing colors should not be limited to traditional gender aesthetics, but should be chosen according to personal preferences and styles. This concept has promoted the diversification and crossover of men's and women's clothing colors. Popular culture and fashion trends play an important role in the development of men's and women's clothing colors. For example, from the 47 cases of LOUIS VUITTON2022 Fall/Winter show, dark colors such as black, dark blue, and dark brown are used in each set of clothing, with a large area of ​​48%, and a small area of ​​dark colors with bright colors embellishment The proportion is 52%. 72% of SAINT LAURENT2023 Fall/Winter women's clothing is black and white, 18% is colorful dark tones, and 10% uses high-saturation red. SAINT LAURENT 2023 autumn and winter men's clothing is as high as 94% black and white, and dark colors are 6%. Under the same brand, the proportion of black and white in the men's and women's shows in the same quarter is relatively high, and there is a small part of color. It can be seen that there is no obvious gender difference in the color of non-sex clothing, which more reflects the brand's tone and the important way of personal expression.
       In summary, the development and changes in the colors of men's and women's clothing reflect that people's aesthetic consciousness and concepts are generated under the influence of the social and cultural environment [20]. Gender equality and free choice, popular culture and fashion trends, as well as personal expression and self-identity are shaping the trend of diversified colors of men's and women's clothing. Only by accepting that everyone is an independent and equal individual can we think about de-gendering and gender neutrality.