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Gender neutrality SHIFTING is becoming SHIFTING a huge social movement, and the fashion and INTOINTO hair industries are leading the charge. NEUTRALNEUTRAL fashion,fashion, hairhair helphelp shattershatter gendergender normsnorms Photograph by Matt Licari. Hair by Brittan White

By Laura Bania and Katie Harrington “They say, ‘Oh wow, that Rain Dove grew up thinking she was “an ugly type of woman.” If you asked model looks her what she thought she’d grow up to be, she would have said something like a male in along the lines of “a humanitarian aid worker helping to dig wells.” Rain some photos actually grew up to be a model—the face of top ad campaigns and New and a female in York Fashion Week shows. But she’s also the face of something else. A the other.’ I say, self-proclaimed, “gender capitalist,” Rain has spent the past year shattering ‘No. I don’t look gender norms. like a gender. Rain isn’t alone. In 2014, transgender actress and advocate Laverne Cox I look like a appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. Then came the nationwide human without legalization of same-sex marriage, followed by Caitlyn Jenner’s limitations of transformation and her Vanity Fair cover. And then there’s the fact that expression.” “Orange is the New Black” actress and gender fluid model Ruby Rose is –Rain Dove today’s “It” girl. Yeah, times are changing. Unsurprisingly, the fashion and hair industries have been at the forefront of this change for some time. Fashion has always played fast and loose with gender norms and androgyny, and these days, the industry is taking it a step further—supporting and advancing a major social movement and giving people more freedom than ever to be who they really are. “Genderless and androgynous fashion is more than a trend, it’s a movement of society,” says Bumble and bumble Global Artistic Director, Laurent Philippon. “Hairstyles have always been a reflection of this movement. Hollywood in the ’40s and ’50s reflected the new “FASHION freedom of women by showcasing shorter hairstyles. We saw this again in the ’60s with Vidal Sassoon’s boyish haircuts. All REALLY of this is part of the evolution.” DOES Some of the major players in this evolution include Rain, Seth Atwell, Kris Gottschalk and Erin Mommsen, all of whom, with CHANGE their beautifully androgynous features (a fierce blend of soft and sharp) are making names for themselves in Vogue and W THE magazines and appearing in some of the biggest Fashion Week shows, including Vivienne Hu and Givenchy. Rain recently WORLD.” appeared in Cosmopolitan’s “11 Women Who Are Redefining Beauty.” Kris was named one of the breakout models of spring/ -Rain Dove Photographs by Matt Licari. summer 2016 Fashion Week by Paper Magazine. 118 behindthechair.com Hair by Gabriel Jenkins. Why is this important? Because fashion is never just fashion. Following a “GENDERLESS It’s a means of self-expression, but it’s also a reflection motorcycle of the times in which we live. Art mimics life, and seeing accident last AND gender neutral models rock the runways sends a very clear year, Kris was ANDROGYNOUS message—the gender lines are blurring, and that’s OK. “I forced to buzz think there’s a different take on beauty than there has been her hair. Now, FASHION IS for a while,” notes Fashion Week legend Guido Palau. “I she’s one of MORE THAN A don’t think young people, including models, are hung up on the top runway gender the way that past decades have been. We’re seeing models at New TREND, IT’S A a lot of diversity on the runway, and I think the blurring of York Fashion gender is something that’s very prevalent.” More importantly, Week. MOVEMENT OF the prominence of the gender-neutral model gives a voice SOCIETY.” to a group of people who’ve never really been represented in mainstream culture. “I think the more diversity there is on -Laurent Philippon the runway and in fashion, the more people can relate to it in different ways,” says Guido. “We’re seeing more black models on the runway and more gender fluidity on the runway—it’s a really positive thing.” And hairdressers aren’t just a part of it—they’re at the forefront. “Fashion is something that’s the right moment, right now,” notes Laurent. “Kids today don’t want to fake it—they want to live who they are. At the same time, designers are creating clothes that need to sell. So to stimulate profitability, hair and beauty are allowed to be more creative. Hopefully, such fashion shows will open people’s minds a little bit more.” Earlier this year, Kris became one of the breakout stars of Fashion Week when she walked the Givenchy runway with a fresh, platinum buzz cut. Chelsey Pickthorn is the stylist responsible for Kris’s cut and the owner of Pickthorn Salon in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. For Chelsey, whose clientele consists of residents of one of the hippest neighborhoods in a city of hip neighborhoods, the so-called androgynous “trend” is actually just an extension of authentic, everyday style. “I think back to the ’90s, when designers looked to the streets for inspiration,” says Chelsey. “Then it sort of flip-flopped and went back to what the designers were dictating. But I think we’re back to that place where a lot of designers are looking at what people are wearing on the street.” As for Rain Dove, she’s OK with the fact that she didn’t end up “digging wells” or “tying herself to trees in the rainforest.” Her modeling career has allowed her to make more of a difference than she ever thought possible. “Fashion really does change the world,” says Rain. “It changes how people feel about themselves, it changes what people are comfortable with sexuality-wise, it changes how people accept themselves. I’ve been able to do humanitarian work in that way, and influence people the way I want to.”

Photograph by Alexei Hay. Hair by Neil Grupp.

“Bumble and bumble was one of the first brands to recognize Photograph by the genderless or androgynous movement in society, and it Gender fluid models Seth Atwell Alex Evans. inspired my campaign shoot with [photographer] Richard for GLASSbook Magazine (left) and Hair by Natalie Burbridge,” says Laurent Philippon. Erin Mommsen for Numéro Homme Ventola. Germany (right). behindthechair.com 119