Fashion

The Future of Retail Is Genderless

Retail has long been segregated into binary men’s and women’s sections, a system that is both outdated and exclusionary. As we move into 2021, shopping must embrace the full spectrum of gender. These retailers, designers, and shoppers have some ideas of…

The image of Harry Styles in a Gucci dress on Vogue’s December cover proved so controversial that it became international news—and not for the obvious reason that it’s Harry f**king Styles and he looks amazing! Even politicians weighed in on the Tyler Mitchell–lensed photoshoot in which Styles, who is far from the first, or even the most provocative gent to slip into a dress, wears several frocks by Gucci, Chopova Lowena, Wales Bonner, and Harris Reed. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for the record, thought Styles looked “bomb,” but at its core, the dress debate highlighted an issue that plagues much of the fashion world and the world at large: the gender binary.

Let’s state the obvious: A piece of fabric, a textile, or a garment has no gender. This is an indisputable fact! But for as long as fashion has existed as a codified set of seasons, fashion shows, and trends, it has worked under the assumption that gender exists in a binary. Every aspect of the fashion system is beholden to the segregated ideas of menswear and womenswear: universities, fashion weeks, retail floors, e-commerce websites, modeling agency boards, and even creative directorships are divided down gender lines. Many within the industry have begun to remedy this fractured system, but the industry at large must ask itself: How can we represent the spectrum of gender in a more inclusive and realistic way?

One place to begin is retail. Beyond a capitalist pursuit, shopping is a means to self-realization and self-expression. From our earliest moments, clothes define us. As we grow older, the search for the “perfect” black boot, shearling coat, or high-rise jean becomes less about finding the trendiest or most coveted item and more about the one that best agrees with our own set of aesthetic codes.

Yet to even begin shopping for new jeans, we are commonly asked to assign ourselves to one of two fashion genders: men’s or women’s. This happens at brick-and-mortar stores, which divide up menswear and womenswear into separate areas, floors, and sometimes even buildings. It happens online, too, where many of the most popular luxury e-commerce sites divide their offerings with little crossover.

“We recognize that [style] can be fluid and flexible—meaning that one day, you may identify with and choose to express greater degrees of femininity than you might on a different day,” says Ssense’s Brigitte Chartrand, the vice president of womenswear buying. “[but] we also recognize that the average consumer at this moment, and despite our collective, growing consciousness about gender identities and continuums, still has a mental model that they use when buying clothing. In other words, when browsing through our assortment of over 50,000 items and 600 brands, there’s a simplicity and ease in organizing clothing by men’s and womenswear departments because it aligns with how people think of clothes and navigate online and brick and mortar stores.”

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Entertainment

A$AP Rocky Turned An Entire Manchester City Kit Into His Album Rollout

Photo: DannyB Photos / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

A$AP Rocky doesn’t do album rollouts quietly, and this one recruited an entire Premier League club to help. Manchester City, PUMA, and Rocky teamed up on a limited apparel run tied to “Don’t Be Dumb,” his 2026 album, timed around his September 5th show at Co-op Live.

The centerpiece is a long-sleeve PUMA King jersey in black and archive gold, with “DON’T BE DUMB” running down the sleeve and AWGE branding worked in throughout. A bold “MANCHESTER” graphic covers the back. Fans could also add limited “A$AP 11” name-and-number printing onto the club’s actual Home, Away, or Third kits, while supplies lasted at retail.

There’s a players-only version too, and it never went up for sale. That one sticks closer to City’s usual sky-blue identity, with its own sleeve detailing and back graphic — the kind of piece that exists purely because a handful of people got lucky.

The whole rollout kicked off with a one-night pop-up on September 4th, when PUMA turned a spot in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a pop-up cafe for the night, mixing football, music, and street style into one room before the wider release hit the stadium store the next morning. Some of those jerseys even came with golden tickets to the concert or that Saturday’s match.

Rocky has called the project true to his own design language, and it’s not even his only club collaboration this cycle — a similar drop with AC Milan landed around the same time. At this point, the line between fashion week and matchday has basically disappeared.

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Entertainment

Quavo And Lids Are Going All In On Atlanta With Their New Cap Pack

Photo: Finish Line / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Quavo has never been shy about his hat obsession, and Lids just gave him another outlet for it. Their new “Atlanta” pack drops September 12th, marking another round in a partnership that’s been running strong since 2019.

The collection is a love letter to the city, spread across three very different caps. One mashes up pinstripes, script lettering, and Braves branding into a single design, working navy, red, white, and light blue into the mix. Another goes the opposite direction entirely — fully iced out in crystal detailing, done up in black and red, with both the Falcons and the Braves showing up in the design. The third strips things back to an old-school “ATL” trucker cap in red, white, and gold, the kind of understated piece that lets the city’s name do the talking.

None of this is new territory for Quavo. He’s talked before about waiting on hat releases as a kid, and that same excitement seems to be what’s kept this partnership going years past most celebrity collabs. His earlier Lids run leaned on one moment — the Braves’ 1995 World Series win — but this pack pulls from the city’s whole sports history instead of just one highlight.

Lids has called Quavo one of the rare voices who can blend music, fashion, and sports without it feeling forced, and this drop backs that up. Given how fast his past releases have moved, Atlanta might want to set an alarm for September 12th.

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