RESEARCH TOPIC: Is gender neutral fashion linked to gender equality?
Articles:
The Odyssey Online......
- As societal norms change, the boundaries between women and men's fashion become hazy
- As we have seen lately, unisex fashion trends have taken the runway by storm
- When the media portrays the future of fashion, both men and women dress alike
- Uses example from "The Hunger Games," men and women dress the same
CNN...........
- When writers and filmmakers depict the future, they often include one strange detail: men and women dressing alike.
- Recently, fashion designers like Gucci have begun selling what is being called gender-neutral or gender-free clothing: clothing that can be worn by either men or women
- 2016 was the year when..
- Target made an announcement in August that the retail giant would be eliminating gendered language in its children's toys and bedding
- Transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover
- Miley Cyrus self-identification as gender-fluid.
Marketing Concern: Is gender neutral fashion just a marketing stunt?
- It is important to differentiate between marketing and actual progress towards gender equality
- "To be sure, fashion can advocate for social change. But just as often, fashion will exploit social movements, aestheticizing them as a way to seem edgy and turn a profit."
- Is the fashion industry manipulating a current social movement for a profit?" (Martins 2016).
- "Fashion is a business, and it is necessary to succeed. However, exploiting people's lives and turning their story into revenue is not something that deserves praise" (Martins 2016).
Analysis & Discussion
ZARA
• Zara is a Spanish clothes and accessories
brand
• Zara keeps up with the latest fashion
• Mostly high quality and affordable
• They have been extremely successful
because they keep up with street fashion with the changing times
• Focuses on how fashion changes everyday
• Makes new designs fast and puts them into
stores within the next weeks
Most other fashion brands would take a
whole six months to get their new designs into the market
According to SuccessStory.com
- Zara's brand, name, and image has poor marketing
- The brand does not advertise itself in any form at all
References
Martins, L. (2016, January 26). Is Gender Neutral Fashion Linked To Gender Equality? Retrieved from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/is-gender-neutral-fashion-linked-to-gender-equality
Rizzo, M. (2016, January 14). Can we tie unisex fashion trends to gender equality? Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/14/fashion/unisex-fashion-gender-equality/
Zara Success Story. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://successstory.com/companies/zara
Sciacca, N. (2016). Why Zara calling sweats 'genderless' is problematic. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2016/03/08/zara-genderless-clothing/#xIPN2TAJL8qY
