Professor Andrew Groves, Professor of Fashion Design, was quoted in an article by WWD about the shift of gender norms in fashion.
In the article, Professor Groves said: “There has been a significant move away from traditional women’s wear toward men’s wear/unisex, sportswear and less gendered fashion. This has been driven in part by students not wishing to impose ideas on who or how their garments are worn, presenting them as ‘proposals’, consciously moving away from the dated notion of the designer as an autocrat.”
He added that students’ perceptions “radically change once they go on internships. It is startling how many say they want to switch to men’s wear when they realise how much more collegial and supportive the men’s wear industry is in comparison to women’s wear.”
He also spoke about whether face masks are pointlessly gendered, and said that when designers and fashion brands began creating face masks, they mirrored an industry that firmly devoted to men’s and women’s departments. He said: “They started to fall back on gendered tropes i.e. floral and pastel masks being specifically marketed to women, while the ones marketed to men drew on the language of Savile Row, the military of pseudoscience.”
Read the full article on the WWD website.
