These brands offer clothing for a shared wardrobe, gender no bar
Gender-neutral clothing is not something that is new to India. Traditional garments such as the kurta, the angrakha and even churidars have always had elements of gender-fluidity in our South Asian history. Ironically, somewhere down the line, we, as a society, drew stark binaries as far as gender politics were concerned. Today, however, with the digital medium taking centre stage, millennials and Gen Zs are questioning and challenging pre-existing notions of gender and identity. A crop of young designers and brands are taking the idea of gender-fluidity mainstream with modern silhouettes. Here’s our curation of creatives who are putting their own spin on gender-neutrality when it comes to dressing up.
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Bloni:
Hailing from Hisar in Haryana, at Bloni, Akshat Bansal shows diversity through his gender-agnostic and future-friendly collections, while exploring craft and materials to create wearable art. Take his ‘In Between XY’ collection, for example, which featured garments not conformed to any particular gender, in the form of vegan leather trousers and a chainmail capelete with a metallic collar. Having graduated from Central Saint Martins in London and trained under Tarun Tahiliani, a lot of Bansal’s collections are created by using unique and experimental fabrics, such as regenerated marine plastic amalgamated with traditional weaves like chanderi.
Anas Sheikh draws inspiration from the traditional culture of Kutch in Gujarat, which is why you’ll find a lot of block-printing, marbling, ajrakh and other tie-and-dye techniques in his collections, all of which are handmade using 100 per cent natural dyes. The results are seen on boxy shirts and loose trousers that can be worn by anybody. The brand’s Instagram account gives a peek inside Sheikh’s design and dying processes which add a touch of uniqueness as no two garments end up looking the same.
New Delhi-based Sumiran Kabir Sharma’s label Anaam is his artistic way of challenging the rigidness that surrounds gender. Born in Shimla, Sharma’s love for wool led him to work with the material in unconventional ways. He went on to win the Woolmark Young Talent Awardby theWoolmark Company,Australia in 2013. As a ‘silhouette artist’ (as he calls himself on Instagram), his designs have a flowy uniformity that lend themselves to ageless and genderless silhouettes, reminiscence of American designer Rick Owens.
The unapologetic gender-agnostic approach that you see in Vulgar’s collections is its founder Akshay Sharma trying to make a statement against the age-old constraints of gender that we are usually boxed into. Founded in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, Sharma, as a gender-fluid fashion entrepreneur and a former chartered accountant based in Bengaluru, wanted to push the boundaries of fashion with his passion project. Sculpted bodysuits, cut-out dresses and Balenciaga-esque biker top and leggings as testament to the idea of inclusivity and fluidity.
Brother-sister duo Dheeraj and Divya’s gender-neutral clothing brand explores the traditions of India through modern silhouettes. Made in Hyderabad with fabrics sourced from the weavers in Telangana, you’ll find hand-woven, ethical and consciously made shirts in a bright range of colours that feature their signature ikat prints in red, black, green and blue. We’d throw in a special shout-out to their range of one-of-a-kind boxy shirts that are made from upcycled and deadstock materials.
Although a budding designer from the Nation Institute of Fashion Technology in Kolkata, Mumbai-based Sanchit Sachan’s graduation collection was a big ‘f*** you’ to the perception of masculinity upheld by society. “They said me to ‘be a man'...To that day, I decided, I am f***** gonna change this perception of masculinity,” he wrote in an Instagram post. The collection, named ‘Soft Masculinity,’ is Sachan’s way of rewriting the narrative surrounding masculinity, with ruffled pants and sleeves that almost resemble a blooming flower.