genderless

Unisex or genderless

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How gendered labels influence people’s perception

We can say that a garment is unisex or genderless, but it seems like people cannot really understand the point. Which is a matter of freedom and style.
Either they fear something, like they are afraid of judgemental comments. Or maybe they are waiting for validation or approval in order to wear a piece of clothing.

Gendered labels

But why? Do gendered labels have this power over people? Can labels define people’s life? So it seems. In fact, independent thought and auto-determination work for a few. The other ones need pre-packed boxes to identify and fit in. Therefore, labels satisfy that need of belonging, having the same effect as a cloak you wear to feel protected. Labels, in general, and gendered labels specifically, make people feel safe.

However, this strict separation seems to be less present among young people. Having a different perception of style, they feel more open to playing with clothing.

Unisex or genderless

Unisex or genderless, men’s or women’s – find your own definition if you need it. Find the label you feel comfortable with if you really have to. But be advised that no one is going to ask from what category you picked the garment you are wearing. Perhaps no one cares!

Fashion style #formodernhumans

The point is not the category and not even the size! For instance, take a shirt or a sweater and wear it on. Do you like it? And do you like the fit, how it falls on your body? Also, do you feel comfortable in it? Enough! No one needs any further explanation. And, if anyone asks, you are free to respond as you like.

From whatever category we pick out the clothes to assemble our selections, we refer to most pieces as unisex or genderless. We don’t see categories as a limit, we just take what we like. Because style is not a matter of fitting into a gendered category. It’s only about how clothes look on you. And how you want to wear them.

The Black Suit

Today we introduce The Black Suit by Meagratia.

Are you passionate about good design and unique garments? Then, this is for you. Meagratia is the new fashion brand we picked this season from Japan. If you missed the interview with the Japanese designer Takafumi Sekine, please find it here.

This suit is a stylish ensemble carefully designed and rich in detail. The fit is oversized, and the aesthetic is modern and genderless. Indeed, the style goes beyond any gendered label. It’s more about who you are, feeling free to wear whatever you want. Also, you will appreciate the fabric quality and the excellent tailoring.

Discover the timeless black suit

About the design
The blazer features an oversized fit and dropped shoulders. It is fully lined, with one inner pocket. The two front pockets and front closure highlight unique button detailing with leather straps.
The straight-leg trousers come with front pleating, two side pockets and two buttoned pockets along the back. A front button and zip closure.

The Black Suit by Meagratia
The Black Suit by Meagratia

About the material
98% wool, 2% polyurethane – 100% leather buttons and straps.
The fabric has a soft hand touch and an average thickness.

About the colour
Black: cool, eternal, and versatile.

Laundry
Dry clean.

Style tips
The Black Suit is sleek and versatile. Indeed you can opt for the full outfit on multiple occasions. But, of course, you can separate the two pieces and wear only the blazer or the pants. Since they are easy to match, they will become a staple in your capsule wardrobe made of quality garments. Try it with Marc Le Bihan’s couture t-shirt!

We ship everywhere!

We are based in Milano, but we ship our niche selection #formodernhumans everywhere.

Drop us an email or WhatsApp for any further information. Also, you can book your private shopping experience – physical or via video call.
We’d love to help!

The Textured Knit Vest

Today we introduce The Textured Knit Vest by Meagratia.

If you are hunting for unique clothing, check out Meagratia, our new in from Japan. You will discover a modern interpretation of fashion with uncommon creativity. Indeed, the subtle genderless aesthetic and multiple details on its designs allow you to wear the garments as you prefer.
It’s about fashion #formodernhumans – beyond any gendered label.

Discover The Knit Vest

About the design
It is a knit vest with a wide ribbed v-neckline and a boxy shape. And it is designed with different types of delicate knitted fabrics that create a unique pattern. Also, the left side is open, so you can change the silhouette by fastening the two side belts. Another design point is a fringe detailing the hemline all around.

About the material
A knit wool blend made of different types of delicate knitted fabrics – 60% acrylic and 40% wool. The rich texture reveals an elaborated pattern design.

The textured knit vest


About the colour
A combination of three colours: grey, green and white. The result is a soft mix that creates a refined Fall/ Winter hue.

Laundry
Dry clean.
If you need to iron it, use a cool iron with a press cloth between the iron and the fabric.

Style tips
With The Textured Knit Vest, you have many styling options. Just wear it over a basic tank top when the weather allows it. And when it gets cold, wear it over a basic long-sleeved t-shirt, white, black or grey. We love it over a white shirt too. Also, we tried it with the Marc Le Bihan aubergine t-shirt – it looks cool. However, it works with trousers but also over a pencil maxi dress.

We ship everywhere!

We are based in Milano, but we ship our niche selection #formodernhumans everywhere.

Drop us an email or WhatsApp for any further information. Also, you can book your private shopping experience – physical or via video call. We’d love to help!

An interview with Takafumi Sekine

The man behind Meagratia

Takafumi Sekine is the man behind Meagratia. Recently, we took the opportunity to interview him to discover more about his brand.

In search of good design, which doesn’t necessarily belong to the mainstream fashion universe, we discovered Meagratia, a Japanese brand with a subtle sense of fashion and uncommon creativity.

The brand imagery is modern but somehow delicate. Indeed, it plays with a genderless and timeless aesthetic through a contemporary perspective. So, a unique take on where style flows without constraints.

Takafumi Sekine / Meagratia: the interview

Discover more about the designer universe:

• What is your background?
Takafumi Sekine: “I started Meagratia because I wanted to create for others the joy I felt when I wore my favourite clothes as a student. I design interesting things by fusing the history and birth of fashion with modern sensibilities.”

• How would you describe your brand identity?
Takafumi Sekine: “Meagratia creates clothes that the wearers can enjoy in their own way.”

An interview with Takafumi Sekine


• It seems that flowers are a recurring inspiration. Right?
Takafumi Sekine: “Flowers are precious and change, not only when they are in bloom but also as dried flowers. Meagratia creations suggest a quality that changes with time but does not wither.”

• We notice many details in your garments. How do they contribute to your sense of design?
Takafumi Sekine: “It all starts with the desire to create something interesting and new. I take inspiration from various sources and I incorporate them into my design. So, using many details and variations allows a wider range of wearing styles and unusual ways of presenting them.”

• Why do you use the Sakiori technique (rag weaving) for your collection?
Takafumi Sekine: “For our Autumn/Winter knitwear, we created an upcycled design using surplus fabrics. However, the technology and attitude of the factory we work with towards new things are also excellent and play an important role in our collaboration.”

• What do you think about the fashion industry now?
Takafumi Sekine: “On the positive side, both industry and consumers have more choices nowadays, but on the other hand, there are some difficulties. I believe that the consumerist society is gradually changing these days. But I am also concerned about the ageing of craftspeople with excellent skills and the problem of passing these important skills down.”

Meagratia, cool design #formodernhumans

Meagratia’s design is cool, and the quality is excellent. The clothes communicate timelessness. Boundaries, male or female, are blurred, but the style is never jarring for whoever wears them. 

And so, there is a sense of freedom in Takafumi Sekine’s vision, which allows people who wear his clothes to create their personal style. The real essence of fashion.

The Asymmetric Fluo Cotton Sweater

The light green version

The item we introduce today is The Asymmetric Fluo Cotton Sweater by ZUCCa.

The line is stylish, comfortable and easy to wear. Also, the concept of asymmetric design is something we really like because it’s modern and unusual, and it looks great when you wear it.
We already showed you the purple version a couple of weeks ago, and we are happy you enjoyed it! Since this pull is a new classic, we decided to select another colour too, which is a stronger version.

By the way, the quantities we order are limited, and this is intentional. In fact, the idea is to create unique outfits and not replicate clones you see everywhere.

Discover The Asymmetric Fluo Sweater

About the design
The sweater features a round neck and asymmetric hemline. Also, a robust seam along the front and side highlights the mix of the two different thicknesses of the same material. The seam details the shoulders too.
Ribbed neckline, cuffs and hem. The silhouette is slightly oversized and unisex.

The Asymmetric Fluo Cotton Sweater
The Asymmetric Fluo Cotton Sweater
by ZUCCa

About the material
100% cotton, non-glossy. It is made by knitting 100% soft cotton yarn into the high and middle gauge and docking it. The material has a thin thickness with a certain elasticity.

About the colour
Light green: a vibrant colour that makes it a bold piece, not for everyone. But this bright hue will give you an instant mood boost.

Laundry
Hand washable, easy-care.
You can wash this item by hand at home.

This new season item is a versatile modern garment that offers multiple styling options. Even though it’s a bold colour, it’s easy to mix and match. It’s perfect with white pants, but you can also pair it with navy, denim or black bottoms.

The Asymmetric Fluo Cotton Sweater is timeless, genderless and stylish.

Drop us an email or DM for any further info. We’d love to help!

The new categorising

A human need or an empty extremization?

The new categorising, or the need to assign labels in which a specific group should fit, is growing hugely. Genderless, sustainable, recycled, upcycled, inclusive – these are some of the labels popular in fashion.
We see pretty, or less pretty, boxes clearly labelled, but they seem so fake.

Categorising: a marketing byproduct

Why are brands obsessed with putting labels on their work? And, in parallel, why do people need labels? To identify themselves? or to be represented?

Jean-Paul Gaultier created the majority of the fashion topics that are trending now. But there was no label to claim during the ’80s and ’90s in the fashion field. Indeed, it was a work of freedom, both from the designer’s viewpoint and those who used to wear his clothes.
Jump to 2022, and the need for labelling exploded. Genderless and sustainable are the most popular ones. Every brand is genderless now! But also, recycled or upcycled are on top.

Obviously, it’s a trend.
Coming from a family of seamstresses, disassembling a pair of trousers to make a skirt, or transforming a shirt into a blouse was a daily matter. Which is the point of upcycling and recycling.
Moreover, in our boutique, we always proposed men’s items for women, as we sold female items to men, but we never felt the need to categorise. Which is the point for genderless, inclusion, diversity.

Even though about five years ago, we started focusing more on genderless or recycled as valuable concepts, now brands overuse them. Indeed they became so mainstream that they are abused. Intentionally misleading, as in the case of sustainability.

We are not happy to be classified. So we wonder, what happened recently?

We think the less we find meaning in brands and their products, the more they need to place labels in order to make stuff easy to market.

The supply is way bigger than the people in the world who can purchase products (who represent the demand). So, to reach the masses, brands lowered the bar. And the more they lower the bar, the less value they offer. Here comes the need for marketing and labelling.

Labelling is an attempt to legitimise and promote an empty system. They legitimise instead of offering what really matters, the content.

Milano Fashion Week 22

The return of physical events

Milano Fashion Week 22, with the return of physical events, was supposed to represent the relaunch for the economy and creativity.

Was it so? And what were the main topics?

Fall/Winter 22 trends

90’s
The nineties were the common thread seen almost everywhere.
As an expression of society, fashion – like history – repeats itself.

“Balenciagitis”
While the pandemic seems under control, another highly infectious virus spread among designers.
This virus is called “Balenciagitis.” When designers are affected, they create tons of exaggerated shoulders and extremized silhouettes. Of which you do not understand the point.

Raf Simons has been strongly infected, indeed you could see it in the Prada fashion show. Since the co-designing collaboration has started, Prada stopped dictating trends, as always did, and now follows the others.

Even Dolce and Gabbana were infected, we hope someone will soon find a cure for it.

Co-branding
Collab with sports brands. Or flea market outfits with the plus of co-branding, that’s what Gucci did with Adidas. Right, nothing new in the end. Just branding.

Milano Fashion Week 22


Genderless
In January 2020, Stefano Pilati presented at Pitti his independent brand, Random Identities. The collection showed a few tailored pieces in a genderless key. About two years later, the creatives who create when something is already created, discovered the trend. Hey, all brands went genderless!

Sustainability
Round tables, talks, shows. Every single brand is sustainable! And the more they talk about it, the less they offer value. Moreover, “sustainable designers” and those who have hands in that industry offer something unattainable. Just smoke in the eye, generating a big misleading business.

Inclusion
What is the line between inclusivity and bad taste? This point is not clear to us. In fact, in many shows which focused on this topic, bad taste stood out.

Milano Fashion Week 22 most-liked

Our favourites
Jil Sander was one of the few fashion shows we enjoyed. We didn’t see much of Jil Sander in that, but, at least, we saw beautiful, well-made clothes developed in a coherent collection.

Bottega Veneta: iconic accessories, clean lines clothing with a high-end impact. Beautiful design, but no logo shown, no sensationalism. The essence of modern elegance and luxury. Bravo, Matthieu Blazy!

This is not a good time for creativity nor the economy. And so, a cultured audience has to dig a lot to find value. Because worthwhile designers, rather than being part of that inconsistent game, avoid communicating at all.

About genderless style

Our viewpoint vs the mainstream

Why genderless style is portrayed as ridiculous?

The point with the genderless fashion trend is that the trespassing in a clownesque style seems the only possible imagery. That is the clear general trend in fashion: excessive, absurd, and deliberately caricatural. So, in the same way, it has to be depicted in the case of genderless clothing. That goes hand in hand with the “please, look at me” social media-induced manner.

Although we embrace and promote the freedom of expression, we can’t see the link between this crucial prerogative and how they force it towards the excess.

About genderless style


Boundaries between sexes are becoming more blurred. Is that new?

David Bowie is one of the best examples of the gender-fluid style of all time. His elegant posture is unforgettable. An innate gift that many try to imitate just with a sad result. By the way, Bowie has never been ridiculous. We cannot say the same thing about the “characters in search of an author” who dominate the fashion and music scenes.

Of course, our viewpoint on genderless clothing has nothing to do with the mainstream trend.
We believe many items have no gender and can be worn by whoever wants to pick them up. Indeed, we have always selected clothing from men’s collections without feeling the need to specify it. We adore that oversized style or even the more rigorous mannish tailoring. Likewise, we have never had problems selling a woman’s coat or blouse to a man, for instance.

Clothing and accessories contribute to expressing your personality.
To that end, gendered labels do not represent a limit for us. In fact, we like to mix and play with them. But something is missing today. Good taste and elegance are the factors that provide the perfect balance.
Where are they now?

Paris Fashion Week – En plein air!

A couple of messages seem clear from Paris Fashion Week. Apart from the most evident fact that nothing truly has changed. The idea of renovating a system, so discussed during the pandemic, changing its outdated foundations, providing new guiding principles and deeper values — has failed miserably. That’s what fashion ruled by finance does. Forget lesser productions with better quality – this is not for corporations.

Image of Paris during fashion week
Paris

So, what are the takeaways from Paris fashion shows? 

Paris Fashion Week: SS22 trends

Nature’s calling
Sea, trees, woods. This message seemed quite strong. Indeed, many designers have set up their fashion shows immersed in nature. As to celebrate something we all missed for over a year or more. Or a desire to reconnect with our so mistreated vital element.

Clothes have no gender
We saw male models walking the runway in skirts or dresses and females in man’s suits – interchangeable genderless outfits. Not that it’s something new. In fact, Gaultier already did it about 40 years ago. But perhaps, the time is ripe now for a wider audience. 

At this point, garments have lost their traditional gender connotation. An aesthetic that, from a historical viewpoint, has been developed as a reflection of patriarchy.
We understand this is a big topic. Indeed, it requires a deeper analysis, a full exploration. So we will dedicate a whole post later on. However, coming from a Gaultier influence, we always picked out men’s pieces for women or vice versa. If a garment looks good, no matter if it’s men’s or women’s. From now on, we hope there is a free attitude towards how clothing is perceived.

Garments are not stand-alone pieces. They become alive once we wear them. Without our intervention, clothes are empty. It’s us and our personality that completes them. 

The way we represent clothes, the way we portray them is called style. 
It’s an individual posture, the reflection of who we are. 

Masculine & Feminine

Style plays around the concepts of masculine & feminine. But sometimes the limit between one and the other is not so defined, meaning they tend to mix, which leaves more space to creativity.

Fashion & gender

When selecting items for our boutique, we’ve always kept an eye on men’s clothing. We love picking up some men’s items to mix in. We adore the duality of the masculine-feminine style. Also, limiting clothes by gender is a little too restrictive for us.

If you were young during the ’80 / ’90, and your favourite designer was Jean Paul Gaultier – a real creative genius – later on along your path, you would realise you have seen everything possible in fashion and life too. Forget the fast-fashion era, that was a wonderful time! Creativity was at its peak, that unforgettable energy created iconic moments in fashion history.
All the concepts now popular in fashion were launched by Gaultier about 40 or 50 years ago. He was living ahead of his time, had a unique attitude, definitely a genius!

We can say he was changing culture by making fashion.

Masculine, feminine and gender-fluid fashion

Gaultier has been the first to bring in diversity and inclusion, laying the groundwork for a gender-fluid fashion. On his catwalks, we saw everything, men wearing skirts, women in oversized suits, different body shapes. Love yourself as you are and play with clothes, sounded so beautiful to us.
Gaultier’s fashion has fed our vision to a point that now, everything seems already seen. Perhaps he brought us to another planet made of love, acceptance and play.
Maybe fashion evolved faster than society’s capability to adapt to the changes.

“Too much comfort is not good for creation.” One of his brilliant quotes invites us to reflect on the specific moment we are living.
Discomfort plays a role in creativity. We must remember it.