What is Androgynous Fashion: An Interview with Maxine Britt
Slim figures. White skin. Tonal outfits. Is that all androgynous fashion is? Merriam-Webster defines androgynous as “The quality or state of being neither specifically feminine or masculine: the combination of feminine and masculine characteristics: the quality or state of being androgynous.” Androgynous fashion has a diversity problem, indicative of a larger cultural issue plaguing the fashion industry and society as a whole.
I sat down with Maxine Britt, founder and creative director of MX Apparel, a gender neutral and size-inclusive clothing brand, to discuss what androgynous fashion means to them and how we as an industry can improve upon our androgynous representation.
Photo Credits to @heyitsjusticee
Audrey Treon: What does androgyny mean to you?
Maxine Britt: Commonly, it either means a mixture of masculine and feminine elements or being devoid of both masculine and feminine elements. I think really, there should be a broad definition of it because it can be super personal — for them, what it means to be a mixture of those different elements.
AT: What do you think of androgynous mainstream fashion? Do you think it’s an accurate representation of androgyny?
MB: This is kind of what I’ve built my career off of is saying that androgynous fashion that currently exists is extremely lacking a lot of gender neutral or unisex, these different terms that have come up, lines are very literal in terms of what neutral means — being neutral in color palette, kind of having very straight silhouettes, also skewing very masculine, or at least what we would conventionally define as masculine, because in society, what we define as masculine is also what we define as neutral because masculine elements are often favored or seen as something that can be worn by all people and feminine elements are not seen that way as much. So yeah, I think that androgynous fashion as a whole, there’s a lot of room to grow in terms of what people see as androgynous and having it not be very limiting in terms of what that is, trying to be a little more expansive, saying like “Why can’t everyone wear dresses?” “Why can’t everyone wear certain colors, like pink, for example?” Those types of things can and should be androgynous.
AT: Do you think there is a lack of diversity within androgynous style, especially at the levels of high fashion?
MB: Yes. Absolutely. I think again that it is very limiting. A huge area where, across the board, lines, you know, whether they're from smaller brands, major retailers, high fashion lines, there is a huge lack of size inclusivity. I think that is really frustrating, especially since a lot of brands market based off of inclusivity and diversity in terms of their design statements, in terms of how they hope to sell their work. But then, in terms of the actual diversity in that collection, it’s lacking. Sizing, for example, stopping at an XL is really common. I think that is really upsetting to see a lack of holistic diversity being pushed by certain lines.
Photo Credits Awa Mally
AT: How do you think fashion practitioners — designers, industry members, really anyone across the board — can expand their definition of androgyny?
MB: I think in terms of the things we’ve been talking about here, obviously, size inclusivity, understanding that diversity means so many different things. Also, in terms of every step of the process. If you’re a tech designer, do you understand different body types? You know, having the same garment fit across different body types or having multiple options for different body types in the same design. In terms of the marketing of your lines, having models who are actually trans, gender nonconforming, or non-binary, model your work, I think that is another way to really feel authentic in terms of how you’re presenting things. Are there people of color in your work? That is very important as well. I would say for me, at least, in terms of my community in Minneapolis and how things exist broadly, the trans community is incredibly diverse and is not only “good diversity” to have that represented, it is just accurate.
AT: The strict gender binaries that exist within our Western, patriarchal system, do you think that affect, even corrupt our definition of androgyny?
MB: Absolutely. You know, in the West and of course that affects global culture in so many ways, we have very narrow definitions of what androgyny means that are not represented globally, across different cultures and I think that it’s really important especially in design to, you know, designers have different backgrounds and for them to represent themselves in their work in different ways to provide more unique perspectives in terms of what [androgyny] means. I think also, we have to understand a lot of where this comes from. A lot of our ideas of gender and fashion have come after the Industrial Revolution, when clothing became mass-produced for the first time. That also narrowed things in terms of how we view gender and fashion because people were not having as much unique personal expression in terms of relating with their dressmaker, etc., everything became a lot more mass manufactured, and that has really impacted our view of gender. As well as [social] class became less of an indicator of fashion, gender became the top indicator of fashion.