I started investigating unisex clothing after thinking about how to go about making a sewing pattern that can be adapted for the use of drag queens. I thought it might first be helpful to establish the ways male and female bodies are the same, to have a basis to work from, and then from that work out which elements would need to be adapted.
Knowing that there are several fashion brands that have a unisex branch of clothing (with some fashion brands declaring themselves to be entirely unisex) I wanted to know how they each approach the difficult aspect of sizing.
I was surprised to find that really there was no special pattern formula that had been created in order to accommodate male and female bodies. Instead, the sizing was just men's sizing. Often the garment chest size would be given and the customer could choose their size option from that. So for example in this sizing chart from the clothing retailer 'Mess in a Bottle', a unisex size XS is equivalent to a women's (US) size 0-4 or a men's size 30-32 (inches).
However the website then states: "NOTE: OUR UNISEX TEES ARE CUT FOR MEN.
WOMEN SHOULD ORDER ONE (1) SIZE DOWN FOR A SLIMMER FIT." and also "Our shirts are all UNISEX. Unisex fit is equivalent to a women's fitted tee if sized appropriately. Please reference sizing chart to select the best fit for your gender and size."
To me, this suggests that 'unisex' is more to do with marketing than sizing and fit. In fact, in all the companies I found that made unisex t-shirts, I found this to be the case. And while this might be understandable in something as basic as a t-shirt or hoodie, it is a little more disappointing when it comes to style.
It was a struggle to find any unisex clothing that wasn't either a t-shirt, hoodie or jogging bottoms. Even the woven garments were oversized shirts that really just looked like very stereotypically male garments. Just putting women in men's clothes and calling them 'unisex' feels a little cynical to me.
And while this is a detour from my projected outcomes, I am curious as to how I would go about creating a garment that is actually designed with both sexes in mind.
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