Gendered fashion is on the way out. Fashion designers are mixing menswear and
womenswear on the runway. Parents are pushing for genderless clothing that
allows little girls to, say, wear science-themed t-shirts instead of princess
dresses. And Quartz fashion writers are asking: “Sex and gender aren’t perfectly
binary. Why should clothes be?”
To be sure, retailers like Gap, the North Face, and American Apparel have
sold unisex clothing for years, though sizing is still typically cut across
gender lines.
But moving toward a less gendered retail experience could also be a “business
opportunity for retailers who create a comfort zone for people who don’t want to
subscribe to one category,” writes market researcher NPD Group in a new
e-book.
Some retailers are already moving in that direction. While Personnel of New
York maintains “women” and “men” sections on its website, it also has a tab
featuring genderless clothing and accessories called, simply, “Everyone.”
Just this week, Target announced that it was phasing out gender-based signage
after customers complained that marketing products by gender was regressive and
unnecessary. Target said it would remove signs in the home goods and
entertainment aisles that delineate which products were meant for boys or girls,
as well as the use of pink, blue, yellow, or green paper on its shelves in the
toy aisles.
NPD argues that retailers could benefit from moving past the old-fashioned
store layouts once designed to comply with increasingly outdated notions of
gender roles (although it falls short of providing conclusive proof that
consumers would actually buy more if stores dissolved the gender division).
Still, the argument makes sense. If men and women are going to wear the same
pair of Converse or Vans sneakers, why stock them in separate “his” and “hers”
sections of the store? If a woman shopping in a department store prefers the
clothes in the traditional men’s section, does she have to lug them down to
another floor just to try them on? Should a retailer give up on potential sales
by alienating a woman who doesn’t want to shop in the men’s department?
