This study investigates the Instagram audience’s reaction to gendered and genderless collections of four luxury fashion brands through a qualitative content analysis. Result show that genderless collections get more negative reactions with harsher tones confirming that gender-related stereotypes in the fashion industry are still pervasive. Gender segmentation has been dominating the clothing market for many years, but is it still a functional variable nowadays? The term gender is not intended as biological sex, but sociocultural one. While biological sex is determined by birth, the term "gender" indicates the different roles and types of sexual behavior of men and women, marked by society and culture. It is therefore above all a question of dividing men and women based on their typical characteristics, as well as biological ones (Giddens, 2010). Although we live in a mostly binary system, there is a diversity of other genera besides feminine and masculine. This is due to the fact, that since ancient times, people have been looking for different methods to express themselves, because they didn’t want to look like others (Reis et al., 2019; Prodan, 2021) and recently it was widely accepted that gender identity is nuanced and complex (Mishna et al., 2012; Hickman et al., 2019). Moreover, research has shown that millennials and generation Z display lower levels of bias concerning issues relevant to gender identity, stereotypes, and roles (Kim et al., 2019). This became visible especially with the response of the fashion industry. Inndeed, more and more famous brands (Givenchy, Gucci, Celine, Louis Vuitton, Versace) have overcome the binary stereotype, approaching the genderless fashion through dedicated collections or by integrating some clothing in their collections. Tracing the history of the fashion industry, the gender binary had already been questioned. In the 1920s, the designer Coco Chanel presented her tweed suit inspired by male suits and included trousers in women’s wardrobes. In 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent launched the women’s tuxedo. Some years later, in 1984, during the fall shows in London and Paris, Jean Paul Gaultier provoked a scandal presenting his line of skirts for men, and later he started to include only unisex collection that followed his idea of fluidity of the gender. More recently, in 2010s the “genderless style” came into use in the fashion industry so that in 2018, the organizer of New York Fashion Week, added ‘unisex/non-binary’ as a new category (Mcalpine, 2018), allowing designers - both established and contemporary - to showcase their personation and this was reflected on the fast-fashion brands as including C&A, H&M, Zara, Benetton, Selfridges which are also taking on a similar approach to bring a sense of wearability to the masses. However, there is limited research about genderless identity, as regards its representation through fashion and clothing (Hickman et al., 2019). This study fits in this gap investigating the transition from gender segmentation to genderless segmentation in the luxury fashion industry through a qualitative content analysis comparing the reactions of the Instagram audience to the presentation of gendered and genderless dedicated collections of four different brands (Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney).

FROM GENDER TO GENDERLESS SEGMENTATION: WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE LUXURY FASHION INDUSTRY?

Cedrola E.
2021-01-01

Abstract

This study investigates the Instagram audience’s reaction to gendered and genderless collections of four luxury fashion brands through a qualitative content analysis. Result show that genderless collections get more negative reactions with harsher tones confirming that gender-related stereotypes in the fashion industry are still pervasive. Gender segmentation has been dominating the clothing market for many years, but is it still a functional variable nowadays? The term gender is not intended as biological sex, but sociocultural one. While biological sex is determined by birth, the term "gender" indicates the different roles and types of sexual behavior of men and women, marked by society and culture. It is therefore above all a question of dividing men and women based on their typical characteristics, as well as biological ones (Giddens, 2010). Although we live in a mostly binary system, there is a diversity of other genera besides feminine and masculine. This is due to the fact, that since ancient times, people have been looking for different methods to express themselves, because they didn’t want to look like others (Reis et al., 2019; Prodan, 2021) and recently it was widely accepted that gender identity is nuanced and complex (Mishna et al., 2012; Hickman et al., 2019). Moreover, research has shown that millennials and generation Z display lower levels of bias concerning issues relevant to gender identity, stereotypes, and roles (Kim et al., 2019). This became visible especially with the response of the fashion industry. Inndeed, more and more famous brands (Givenchy, Gucci, Celine, Louis Vuitton, Versace) have overcome the binary stereotype, approaching the genderless fashion through dedicated collections or by integrating some clothing in their collections. Tracing the history of the fashion industry, the gender binary had already been questioned. In the 1920s, the designer Coco Chanel presented her tweed suit inspired by male suits and included trousers in women’s wardrobes. In 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent launched the women’s tuxedo. Some years later, in 1984, during the fall shows in London and Paris, Jean Paul Gaultier provoked a scandal presenting his line of skirts for men, and later he started to include only unisex collection that followed his idea of fluidity of the gender. More recently, in 2010s the “genderless style” came into use in the fashion industry so that in 2018, the organizer of New York Fashion Week, added ‘unisex/non-binary’ as a new category (Mcalpine, 2018), allowing designers - both established and contemporary - to showcase their personation and this was reflected on the fast-fashion brands as including C&A, H&M, Zara, Benetton, Selfridges which are also taking on a similar approach to bring a sense of wearability to the masses. However, there is limited research about genderless identity, as regards its representation through fashion and clothing (Hickman et al., 2019). This study fits in this gap investigating the transition from gender segmentation to genderless segmentation in the luxury fashion industry through a qualitative content analysis comparing the reactions of the Instagram audience to the presentation of gendered and genderless dedicated collections of four different brands (Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney).
2021
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11393/285946
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