The movers and shakers of androgynous fashion and why it matters!

<p>You might have heard the term androgynous fashion floating around on social media but what does androgyny really mean?&nbsp;Androgyny&nbsp;essentially&nbsp;means blurring the lines between what is considered the masculine and&nbsp;the feminine.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>It is a way of understanding gender&nbsp;outside the traditional binaries. While the concept is nothing new to the 21st&nbsp;century,&nbsp;it seems to cause as much controversy today as it did back in the day when designers Coco Chanel&nbsp;and&nbsp;Yves Saint Laurent made pants and tuxedos for women more than a 100 years ago.&nbsp;</p> <p>Earlier this year, Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh was brutally trolled on&nbsp;Twitter&nbsp;for wearing heeled boots. This is because fashion is intrinsically linked to our&nbsp;identity, and dressing styles have been imposed&nbsp;based on binary genders for the longest time.&nbsp;And even though women wearing menswear-inspired clothing is accepted, if not lauded, the same courtesy is not always extended to the boys.&nbsp;</p> <p>But&nbsp;celebrities like Harry Styles, Justin Bieber and Billy Porter as well as&nbsp;big&nbsp;brands like&nbsp;Gucci and Sabyasachi are a part of&nbsp;a move&nbsp;towards&nbsp;a new direction.&nbsp;</p> <p>One&nbsp;Directioner&nbsp;Harry Styles is the&nbsp;pop culture&nbsp;icon for gender non-conforming style. From ruffled sleeves and&nbsp;romantic pinks to a full-blown ballerina look, Styles is not afraid of embracing his feminine side.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>In India, actors like Ranveer Singh, Jim&nbsp;Sarbh,&nbsp;brothers&nbsp;Aparshakti&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ayushmann Khurana&nbsp;often play with feminine silhouettes&nbsp;and gender-neutral styling without boarding the full cross-dresser train.&nbsp;</p> <p>Addressing the rising demand for clothes that defy boundaries, many young labels say they&nbsp;now&nbsp;focus on silhouettes and fabrics rather than the gender of the person who will wear them. Brands like&nbsp;Huemn,&nbsp;Bloni,&nbsp;NorBlack&nbsp;NorWhite&nbsp;and Bobo Calcutta all&nbsp;want to&nbsp;envision a future of fashion&nbsp;where there are no gendered sections in a clothing shop.&nbsp;</p> <p>International behemoth Gucci&nbsp;is&nbsp;the world leader in making androgynous garments.&nbsp;So much so, that&nbsp;you&rsquo;d be hard-pressed to call out conventional&nbsp;genders of even the models featured in Gucci ads.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Boarding a similar train, Sabyasachi also recently featured a male model wearing&nbsp;a delicate&nbsp;sequinned gold-bronze slip dress&nbsp;but it wasn&rsquo;t without ruffling some feathers.&nbsp;</p> <p>While the nasty trolling can&rsquo;t be ignored, social media has also given a platform for people to express their&nbsp;individual definitions of gender.&nbsp;Influencers&nbsp;like Alok V Menon, Arka Patra,&nbsp;Dr&nbsp;Trinetra Haldar,&nbsp;Pushpak Sen&nbsp;and many, many&nbsp;more&nbsp;are shattering stereotypes about gendered dressing, one Instagram post at a time.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Displaying your true identities isn&rsquo;t always easy and more so in the age of social media, where your every move is scrutinised by the public.&nbsp;We applaud these icons&nbsp;for&nbsp;pushing the general public&nbsp;to change the way we wear, advertise and discuss fashion.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Here&rsquo;s hoping that one day, expressing yourself wouldn&rsquo;t be considered the greatest rebellion.&nbsp;</p>