The Indian Fashion Industry Response to Gender-Agnostic Models

Indian Fashion Industry Response People always believed that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Since Mars is the Roman God of war and Venus is the Goddess of love. There is no in-between these two. But the existence of the third sexual category has been in India since the 18th century. Appearance and dressing played a great part in separating them into a distinct community. Over the years, India’s thriving interest in gender neutrality in fashion is evolving every day. India is pushing through the complex part of gender stereotypes and looking towards transforming the future. What makes India exhibit gender-agnostic clothing? Of course, because of the classic conventional model casting. 

Clothing shows the personality not the gender of the model

Clothing has no gender as well as the presenter. Transgenders dressed up as a woman and putting on makeup gives rise to a lot of stares. Transgenders dressed up as men also provoke a lot of comments.  Well, not only them but every model comes across the trolls for wearing dresses that are less manly or more like a man. These trolls might give you names and remind you of your biological gender. Judging the personality and identity of a person through clothes exists as a lineage in our society. But do clothes have a gender mark? Is dressing out of gender bias disgraceful?

Accepting the body and wearing the apparel that comforts and suits you is of much more importance. Fashion is something that depends on how you glare and approach it. Many binary clothing brands that talk about unisex clothing have set their platform to a new change. We can see many well-known artists promoting their brands. 

Power of clothes

We can hear many ted talks and podcasts every day where fashion gurus address the necessity and beauty of gender fluidity fashion. They try to produce exaggerated pieces exploring the fashion world. These clothes then form an identity for the individual who wears them despite gender. We carry the anatomical and technical differences between men, women, or trans women’s clothing from age-old. We can talk about the dhoti which is the traditional appearance of men in India. It is certainly a loose skirt.

Resisting gender appearance stereotypes, some fashion designers decide on recreating these traditional styles and presenting a genuine fluidity to the audience. They tried to recreate dhoti into long loose skirts and shirts into blouses. We can see many of the male embroidery artists in India wearing their embroidered dresses and feel no specific gender difference. Therefore, designers are fortunate with gender-agnostic models who can be confident and pleased to wear genuine fluidity clothes. The most interesting thing about menswear and womenswear is that there is a constant distinct dialogue. But the rise of gender-fluid fashion is changing this conversation. 

Rising of gender fluidity models in India

Despite all the challenges, binary models are representing themselves as one community, the fashion community. Manish Malhotra decided to explode the gender-agnostic model in his summer 2021 collections featured in vogue. Petr Nitka, who was the first transgender from Nepal ramping up at Lakme fashion week in Mumbai broke many gender stereotypes. Nitisha Biswas, the first trans beauty pageant from 2017 is working with many fashion brands and encouraging other transgenders to step into the world of fashion. And of course, Naaz Joshi, greatly recognized as a beauty queen, now is a showstopper in any ramp show.

Yet, on the ground lies the discrimination that the binary models have to face every day. You can find many controversies where you can see humiliation and discrimination against gender-neutral models. This rises when we try to give fashion a gender. But fashion represents styles and gives confidence to the models as well as the society. 

Fashion is not tied to only men and women. The growing attention of India toward gender-agnostic models is intensifying. Because the confidence and comfort that gender-agnostic models show in wearing different styles stand incredible. The gender-agnostic models who live in urban areas receive more support towards gender fluidity in the fashion world. But the models who come from rural areas have to face many challenges and ultimately steal the show. Overall, there is no limitation in exploring and flourishing styles, confidence, and beauty in the world. Furthermore, India is moving forward, breaking the limits of the sky and diving into the universe of phenomenal fashion.