Gender-fluid fashion is getting a big win this year as Jaden Smith, the 17-year-old actor/rapper/social media philosopher, and son of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, stars in Louis Vuitton's new womenswear campaign.
Posing in a leather jacket, fringed top, and skirt from Vuitton's Spring 2016 line, Jaden was revealed as the new face early this January, and the ad should be premiering in February magazine issues.
This is not the first time Jaden has challenged gender-norms in fashion and media, posing in painted nails and a skirt on Instagram in January, and he wore a dress to prom with actress Amandla Stenberg last May. He's been photographed wearing skirts on the regular, and both he and his singer-sister Willow have spoken out about self-expression in fashion and how skirts, dresses, etc. aren't girls' clothes, just clothes.
This is also not the first time high fashion has tried to bring androgynous, unisex, agender, gender-neutral or gender-fluid fashion into the mainstream.
There have been several peaks of womenswear taking on traditionally masculine trends throughout the 20th century until becoming now commonplace, but few radical steps towards feminine menswear, or feminized men themselves, have been popularized. The most famous examples of men publicly (and fabulously) donning androgynous or gender-fluid fashion in recent history are the late David Bowie and his flamboyant persona Ziggy Stardust in the 1970's, Boy George of Culture Club in the 1980's, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain rocking his wife's babydoll dress onstage in 1991, and soccer-star David Beckham looking slick in a sorang in 1998. Men in skirts picked up some speed in the 2000's-2010's, some of the male fashionistas including actors Vin Diesel, Ewen McGregor, and Gerald Butler, actor-singer Jared Leto, rappers/singers Kanye West and Diddy, and fashion designer Marc Jacobs.
This new trend of women wearing traditionally feminine clothing is really building speed. Celebrity and model participation in gender-fluid fashion (whether or not they are nonbinary themselves) -- such as Jaden Smith, Ruby Rose, Rain Dove, and AzMarie Livingston -- and the emergence of specifically gender-nonconforming clothing lines -- like Genderflux (founded by the beautiful social-media model Elliot Alexzander), TILLYandWILLIAM, and Not Equal -- are developing a more accepting fashion mainstream, and this time, it looks like it's here to stay.
