It has already been official that gender is in fashion. With brands like Gucci, sending their models down the runway wearing “We should all be Feminist” on their T-shirt, and the rise of transgender models; it would appear fashion is enamored with blurring the gender boundaries. Karl Lagerfeld’s mock demonstration show for Chanel in 2014 is a case in point. However, it seems to me that Karl Lagerfeld had no intention of making an authentic feminist statement, the show was nothing more than a marketing exercise. Personally, I’m not a fan of the obvious showing off of gender in the fashion world. Alexander Wang, on the other hand, has shaped his brand image to a low-key campaign of gender.
Alexander Wang has been long known for their simplicity and unique design. As Susan B Kaiser has claimed, “‘Fashion’ seems to imply femininity as a process of frivolous change, colorful details, and unnecessary flounces, and superficiality”(125), Alexander Wang has chosen to go a different way. An example would be the runway of T by Alexander Wang 2017, the designs have merged the idea of “feminine” and “masculine”. The whole collection of womenswear is in the neutral tone and is strikingly simple. No “frivolous change”, no “colorful details” and absolutely no “unnecessary flounces” and “superficiality”. It shows the confidence of the modern women and merges the boundary of gender in a non-extravagant way.
1) Kaiser, Susan B. “Gendering Fashion, Fashioning Gender: Beyond Binaries” Fashion and Cultural Studies, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, p. 125.
