Androgyny: Gender-Neutral Retail – Does it Have a Future? (2)

Can Gender-Neutral go Mainstream?

When it comes to stores rather than consumer attitude, gender-neutral is already prevalent in merchandising practice at some levels of the market. “When the strength of the brand overwhelms the issue of gender, brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren – because they’re lifestyle – merchandise gender together anyway,” says Nisch.

Categories where product is blended include footwear, personal care, body jewellery and unisex fragrance. Denim, footwear and casual brands and retailers, such as Converse, Vans, Tilly’s and American Eagle Outfitters, which all target younger male and female customers, also blend gender distinctions in merchandising. Product is often displayed together, male and female mannequins grouped together for a lifestyle positioning, and there is not any distinguishable difference between the men’s and women’s floor space.

The older the target consumer, however, the greater the gender skew towards more distinct male and female, and for store designers the issue of navigation in mainstream retail and established behaviours remains uppermost in mind.

“Traditional behaviours dictate that women, and to a greater extent men, need to know where they are in the space. They need to know that the product on offer is ‘for them’ and they can browse with confidence,” says David Dalziel, group creative director of brand and retail design agency Dalziel & Pow, which has worked with retailers including Primark and Debenhams.

“Androgynous fashion has yet to hit the high street with any impact. The introduction of curated lifestyle offers within brands such as J Crew and Urban Outfitters help blur the boundaries between the genders, with the neutral offer acting as a buffer between the genders but, importantly, that buffer still exists,” he adds.

From a navigational point of view, Selfridges’ introduction of gender-neutral gives its customers ‘a third filter’ alongside ‘by men’ and ‘by women’, says Jeff Kindleysides, owner of UK retail design consultancy Checkland Kindleysides, whose clients include Hunter and New Look. “It’s something a department store like Selfridges can do, because it has the stock and space available but, given the practicalities, that may halt any kind of rush towards gender-neutral [in the mainstream].”

There are also limitations on the economic viability of a gender-neutral offer. Selfridges’ Agender is understood to be a response to female customers starting to buy from menswear brands and the ranges themselves becoming more genderless – something department store Harvey Nichols picked up on with its his or hers curated online page, launched last September. For mainstream fashion retailers the appeal of gender-neutral is likely to hit a wall.

“[Gender-neutral] might be something everyone has to have an element of but as a business model it won’t work beyond a certain point because the appeal will be narrow,” adds Kindleysides.

To be continued…

Reference: Wgsn.com. (2015). Gender-Neutral Retail – Does it Have a Future?. [online] Available at: https://www.wgsn.com/content/board_viewer/#/56938/page/1 [Accessed 25 Nov. 2016].