Post an advertisement for a fashion brand and explain how gender is portrayed through the clothing, models, etc. Does the advertisement reinforce traditional gender norms, or does it subvert (go against) them? Include one quote from Fashion and Cultural Studies to support your answer.
69 Fall 2016 NYFW
Brand 69, which the designer is anonymous, said the clothes are designed for everyone, and it’s non-demographic. Unlike clothes that produced normally with the categories for man and women, this brand appears to be gender-less, or in other word, non-demographic. In this image, models are all covered up, with almost no skin and face showing, in the colors of red, black ,and denim blue. The colors the designer used are all genderless, and denim is also a material that’s been accepted by both men and women from long time a go. It is hard to recognized to tell what gender are these people. More likely, the anonymous designer also tries to deliver a message to the customers that not only the gender, the face, the race, the sexuality and all things don’t matter, but just the clothes that you are looking at, and 69 is designed for everyone. It completely subverts the traditional gender norms and even translate the idea of “androgynous” better than other brands. Susan B. Kaiser discussed “Ambiguity” in the book Fashion and Culture Studies that “The concept of ambiguity has multiple meanings: (a) mixed metaphors or numerous layers of message; (b) vague or fuzzy messages, such as those that cannot be put easily into words or that constitute a novel stimulus (e.g., a new style); and (c) inconsistent or contradictory messages that are unclear because they are somewhere in between different possibilities. ” (Kaiser 2012 42) The concept behind the brand 69 seems to relate this idea of ambiguity, but many people consider it in a good way and more suitable for a society now where people have more freedom and possibility to chase for whatever they want to be.
