Gender in fashion is becoming less of an issue as we saw during men's collections that featured women last week. Now, John Galliano has included guys in a gender-bending couture show for Maison Margiela, according to Dazed.
The show featured three male models—John Whiles, Carl Hejm Sandqvist, both represented by Premium, and Roan Louch, who is with Re:quest—walking in the same haute couture dresses as their female counterparts. Louch is the only one of the three that has experience working with Margiela, and appeared in the label's lookbook for its resort collection. Margiela's casting director Shaun Beyen believes the casting comes at an important time. "We didn’t want it to become a gimmick," he told Style.com. "It was a profound statement because there’s so much being discussed at the moment about gender fluidity and gender neutrality."
Jean Paul Gaultier lead the way for gender fluidity in couture shows. The designer has previously featured transgender model Andreja Pejić and drag queen Conchita Wurst in his couture presentations dating as far back as 2011.
The rise of women on men's runway was seen more as a business decision, however, the growing androgyny trend in couture can only be attributed to rising social change.
Check out each appearance of the male models in Margiela's show, as well as Louch's role in the label's lookbook below.
