SINGAPORE –The line between the men’s and women’s sections in clothing stores looks set to get more fluid as shoppers cross the aisles, mixing up fashion to suit their individual tastes.
Timothee Chalamet, the French-American star of the fantasy movie Wonka (2023), is just the latest in a long list of fashion-forward celebrities who have endorsed the trend. He stepped out on the movie’s red carpet premiere in Paris in December in a shimmery, beaded top from fashion designer Tom Ford’s 2024 women’s Spring/Summer collection.
In a November feature on Singapore male fashion influencers in The Straits Times, three out of six revealed that they shop in the women’s section of fashion retailers such as Uniqlo, H&M and COS. The main reasons given were that women’s clothes have nicer designs and better fit.
At Uniqlo, male shoppers have been snapping up its Uniqlo : C collection for women, which was designed by British fashion designer Clare Waight Keller and launched in September.
A spokeswoman for the brand says via e-mail: “The response for the collection has been positive and we have seen many customers taking to the collection well, including male customers.”
She added that some of the collection’s popular items across both genders include the Corduroy Wide Pants, Premium Lambswool Half-Zip Long Sleeve Sweater and Faux Leather Round Shoulder Bag.
The collection has a boyish look to it. In an August interview with Vogue fashion magazine about the collection, Waight Keller says: “I’ve always loved a little bit of this boy-meets-girl style, and the idea of attitude dressing.”
Women are also buying men’s clothes.
Noting the trend, Uniqlo’s spokeswoman says: “Many of our female customers shop in the men’s department to create androgynous looks.”
Fashion director Daniel Boey, 58, who has been in the industry for 33 years, says the androgynous dressing trend has been around for a while, championed by designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano in the 1980s and 1990s.
“Women have been buying from the men’s Dior Homme section since designer Hedi Slimane came up with his seminal skinny silhouette for men in 2000.”
However, what Mr Boey has noticed is that the trend has been more “ground up” in recent years and not necessarily about high fashion. “Younger people seem to have more confidence to wear what they want, and that is because social media has helped to democratise fashion and made fashion role models more accessible,” he adds.
Shoppers hoping to cross the gender-defined aisles may, however, still face some hurdles.
Mr Leonard Cheong, 40, founder and creative director of local genderless athleisure fashion brand Finix Wear, says he still gets shot the “side-eye” from staff when he shops at the women’s department, “but it’s happening less”.
Mr Cheong, who created Finix Wear to be inclusive because he found conventional athleisure clothes very binary, observes: “It’s now a nuanced world.”
His brand is available at finixwear.com. Its latest sales figures have increased 20 per cent in 2023 compared with the same period in 2022, he says.
And as shoppers migrate online, the side-eye may also be a thing of the past.
Ms Faith Sim, 31, who works in human resources, has been buying men’s clothes on the online shopping portal Shopee, and favours brands like Incerun.
Being tall, she finds men’s trousers fit better and that the material does not feel as flimsy. She adds that the pockets are also usable. “So many women’s clothes are fitted with pockets which can fit only half a mobile phone.”
She has been shopping at menswear aisles for almost a decade but buys women’s clothes as well. She posits: “Being a woman, if I put men’s clothes on, won’t they become women’s clothes too?”
