Norma Kamali's Genderless Approach

Sep 30

I'm wearing a Norma Kamali jumpsuit (Net-A-Porter) with a cow-like belt.

Saturday, I got brunch in this quaint French restaurant called Petite Boucherie with my good friend. Over some glasses of wine we began debating the recent fashion news such as, Versace being sold to Michael Kors and how Celine is not longer Céline. She said one the most wonderful things, “Some of these established brands need to die out, just like their creativity has.” In retrospect, some of these established couture houses have to make way for these innovators.

After spending hours on Vogue Runway dissecting Spring collections I stumbled upon Norma Kamali. The look book created was just a mix of wonderful images filled with interestingly styled outfits and models just having fun. Norma Kamali had men in clothes too and not in a way where it seemed like a man was wearing women’s clothes, but where a man was wearing clothes, seeming genderless. On Vogue Runway it was stated that,

”Men have always worn Kamali’s designs: One day in the 1970s, the New York Dolls spilled into the designer’s shop in platforms and makeup and got dressed up in her pieces, but their intent wasn’t cross-dressing or drag, they simply liked the clothes.”

In the last couple years we have been seeing more and more brands being inclusive of who wears their clothes. They even have been shifting away from terms like androgynous and cross-dressing, instead using words like gender-fluid and genderless.

It’s truly marvelous that society has shifted to believe that anything can be for anyone, no matter the gender.