Zara has introduced a range of gender-neutral clothing to its vast inventory.
The Spanish retail giants have introduced Ungendered, a new section in its TRF label. The 16 items range from T-shirts and sweatshirts to denim and Bermuda shorts — unisex basics in neutral colours, constructed from comfortable cottons and cotton blends.
Though modelled by male and female models, the clothing also reinforces the idea that clothes don’t need to be gendered.
Other retailers have also ditched male and female-divided shopping: in spring 2015, Selfridges launched Agender, a unisex shopping experience and the following summer Target announced it would discontinue gender-based signage.
While this seems like a positive push forward in the fashion world, shortly after the collection made its way to the website, some people were quick to criticise the brand on social media.
“When will we move past this notion that genderless clothing simple = plain t-shirts/sweatpants? Why is this ‘bold’?” one user wrote, while another added, “so ungendered clothing means ugly sweatshirts for skinny white people?”
With its new Ungendered line, Zara is acknowledging the existence of nonbinary individuals, a big move for a brand with over 2,000 stores in 88 countries.
