Within the last decade, there has been a major win for the LGBTQ+ community in terms of the elevated visibility in the fashion industry. Designers worldwide have taken on the task of creating gender-neutral pieces for everyone, including androgynous pieces for masculine-identified women and beyond.
Many gender-neutral and nonbinary brands can be high-end and difficult to find, but it won’t be long until this wave makes it into the mainstream. In the meantime, here’s a list of high and low gender-neutral options for any style aesthetic.
1. 69 Worldwide
This provocative Los Angeles-based brand, which defines itself as a “non-gender, non-demographic clothing line,” carries comfortable and cutting-edge unisex pieces. You can find them in their Downtown LA appointment-only showroom and online.
2. Toogood London
Faye Toogood, a British interior designer, and her sister Erica, a fashion designer, started Toogood clothing more as a movement to redefine fashion than as a consumer brand. Their edgy “unisex outerwear” is available on select websites like FarFetch, but honestly we’re just obsessed with their artistic lookbooks.
3. NotEqual
The premise of NotEqual is “genderless form and individuality.” In an effort to “push boundaries while offering rational fashion,” the brand’s collections and projects include designs to die for, with bold lines, colors and patterns suitable for anyone. You can find the online shop on NotEqual’s official website.
4. Cilium
Created by designers Jessica Lapidos and Tom Barranca in Brooklyn, NY, Cilium (previously known as TILLYAndWILLIAM) “began as an experiment in gender-neutral clothing.” The fashion collective’s minimalist, flowy designs are available online.
5. One DNA
All the sleek pieces in One DNA’s varying collections are unisex and can be worn front-to-back. They are designed to be worn year-round, in attempt to “break down the boundary between womenswear and menswear without sacrificing style.” Talk about inclusive!
6. TomboyX
Starting as an underwear brand, TomboyX’s founders set out to create “underwear that any body could feel comfortable in, regardless of where they fell on the size or gender spectrum.” Since it’s beginning, the brand has expanded to include loungewear, sleepwear, accessories, and other intimates.
7. Sharpe Suiting
Originally funded through Kickstarter, Sharpe tailors custom suits to the LA androgynous community, namely “butch women and trans men.” The brand even trademarked its suiting process, Andropometrics™, taking genderqueer fashion to a whole new level.
8. Lonely Kids Club
Handmade in Sydney, Australia, this streetwear company values their individuality as a brand, releasing drops with unique and artistic designs. The brand is dedicated to mental health awareness, and prides themselves on being “a safe space that invites people of all ages and gender identities to enjoy our clothing, not just specified genders.”
9. VEEA
VEEA is an inclusive androgynous clothing brand, The brand’s high-quality dress shirts are declined in tailored and loose fits and available on VEEA’s website. The website even offers an at-home try-on option to ease the nerves and hassle of trying clothing on in-store.
10. Gender Free World
Gender Free World is a relatively new UK-based label founded in 2015 on the basis of ethical principles. The brand’s mission is to fit bodies in a way that high-street clothing cannot. It’s the anti “one-size-fits-all” model. Their shirts are designed with “a gender-neutral sensibility to fit body shape. A looser cut with leftover right buttoning and a hidden bust button to avoid gaping in the chest area.”
11. Muttonhead
Muttonhead is a Toronto-based brand whose intent is to counter “fast fashion” with “slow design” and local, fair-trade manufacturing. The website and Toronto brick and mortar carry “unisex apparel made for everyone” at prices that aren’t extortionate.
12. FLAVNT
FLAVNT Streetwear is an Austin brand for “men, women, and everybody in between.” As the name suggests, its founders intended their clothes to promote body confidence and self-love for all—concepts that in an ideal world would have nothing to do with gender. Their cool as fuck designs are modeled by members of Central Texas’ Queer community, all of whom are given proper introduction on the site, a rarity in the world of fashion.
Brands for genderqueer individuals are being created left and right, but they are still part of a marginal market and often far beyond our college budgets. At least, while you wait for unisex collections to pop up in a brick and mortar near you, you can order them online from these brands—or just stare in awe at the ones with a steeper pricetag.